A distributed computer system is provided. The distributed computer system includes at least one sequencer computing node and at least one matcher computing node. Electronic data messages are sequenced by the sequencer and sent to at least matcher computing node. The matcher computing node receives the electronic data messages and a reference value from an external computing source. New electronic data messages are put into a pending list before they can be acted upon by the matcher. A timer is started based on a comparison of the reference value (or a calculation based thereon) to at least one attribute or value of a new electronic data message. When the timer expires, the electronic data message is moved from the pending list to another list—where it is eligible to be matched against other, contra-side electronic data messages.