FIX Connect technology of the future
The world of electronic trading has been changing rapidly over the last few years, and along with it the communication technology that binds the buy-side to sell-side trading desks. This blog looks at how onboarding new connections to these FIX-based networks is changing, and how ION software is evolving to accommodate this.
When FIX networks were in their infancy, some 20 years ago, adding new connections to a network was considered an implementation task. With engineers configuring both ends of the connection so that the two parties could communicate over FIX, this labor-intensive task has largely remained unchanged. However, the types of connections required for algorithmic flow are now considerably more complex.
A few years ago, the developers at Fidessa realized this complex configuration-driven network could be simplified if the configuration of an end point could be described in data, and the data was distributed to every node in the FIX network. The solution devised was to use a directory server approach, which could store the definitions and distribute them to all the end points. Making each end point aware of all other possible end point locations it could send FIX messages to has many benefits.
One of which will allow clients to describe the connection they require, and who they wish to connect to, without the hosting platform configuration changes required today.
With massive changes like this, a phased rollout approach will be taken, with many clients seeing the fruits of the development over the coming months.
Learn more about FIX Connect in our introduction video.
