1. A method of identifying patterns in securities by security characteristics, the method comprising the steps of: a) entering security identifiers and rate data for at least two select securities into a program server having a query engine; b) using the program server query engine to communicate over a network to locate one or more meta data servers and obtain meta data associated with the selected securities; c) through the use of algorithms, correlating the securities meta data with the securities identifiers and associated rates to create a database searchable by securities characteristics; d) accessing and querying the searchable database for one or more specified security characteristic to identify securities having characteristics responsive to the query; and e) examining the located securities for characteristic patterns.