FIX Protocol Ltd (FPL) is proud to announce the production-ready final release of the Financial Information eXchange Protocol (FIX) version 5.0. The specification is now publicly available and downloadable from the FPL website at www.fixprotocol.org/specifications
Developed in response to industry demand by the FPL Global Technical Committee, FIX 5.0 significantly enhances the messaging support provided by FIX 4.4 which was released in 2003. FIX 5.0 addresses the key issues and trends impacting the financial services industry today including increased automation, growing market data volumes and augmented regulatory pressures. The additional functionality includes, but is not limited to:- Enhanced support for Foreign Exchange trading
- Enriched Order Routing features for reserve, peg, and triggered orders
- Major new support for post-trade and clearing processes for allocation, trade and position reporting
- Market Data Optimisation extensions improving book management
- Support for Reg-NMS, OATS Phase 3, and MiFID regulatory initiatives
- Algorithmic Trading extensions to better support the exchange of information used to initiate and execute algorithmic trading strategy trades
Additionally, FIX 5.0 introduces a new Transport Independence Framework which separates the FIX session layer from the application layer. This enables firms to utilise the business functionality provided by later versions of the protocol with their existing implementations. For example, this will enable a firm to use FIX 4.4 Allocation messages on the same FIXT.1.1 session that is carrying FIX 4.0 Order and Execution messages. The session layer has been designated as FIXT.1.1 and the application layer as FIX.5.0 or earlier. This significantly reduces the financial investment required to support new releases while allowing FIX to be used by a wider audience, from the most demanding low latency users to those requiring massive scalability.
Additionally the Transport Independence framework will allow FIX application messages to be carried over other session transports such as web services and MQSeries, providing the financial community with even greater flexibility.
Commenting on the release of FIX 5.0 Scott Atwell, Co-Chair of the FPL Global Steering Committee stated, “I would like to congratulate the FPL Global Technical Committee on the delivery of the final release of FIX 5.0. The team has voluntarily contributed a substantial amount of time and resource in achieving this initiative, which offers the financial services community the potential to further integrate electronic trading into their business practices and profit from its many benefits.”
Please post to the FIX 5.0 Feedback discussion forum if there are any problems when downloading the specification: www.fixprotocol.org/discuss/47
