About FIX

What is FIX?

The Financial Information eXchange (FIX®) Protocol has revolutionised the trading environment, proving fundamental in facilitating many of the electronic trading trends that have emerged over the past decade.

FIX has become the language of the global financial markets used extensively by buy and sell-side firms, trading platforms and even regulators to communicate trade information. This non-proprietary, free and open standard is constantly being developed to support evolving business and regulatory needs, and is used by thousands of firms every day to complete millions of transactions.

FIX is the way the world trades and it is becoming an essential ingredient in minimising trade costs, maximising efficiencies and achieving increased transparency. FIX offers significant benefit to firms keen to explore new investment opportunities; it reduces the cost of market entry with participants able to quickly communicate both domestically and internationally, in addition to significantly reducing switching costs.

The FIX Protocol language is comprised of a series of messaging specifications used in trade communications. Originally developed to support equities trading in the pre-trade and trade environment, it is now experiencing rapid expansion into the post-trade space, supporting straight-through processing (STP) from indications of interest (IOI) to allocations and confirmations. Additionally, it is witnessing significant growth in the fixed income, foreign exchange and listed derivative markets.

The FIX messaging standard is owned, maintained and developed through the collaborative efforts of FIX Trading Community™ member firms, which include many of the world’s leading financial institutions. These firms work together to ensure that the standard continues to meet emerging trading requirements and to promote its increased adoption, which presents huge potential benefits across the financial community.

If your firm is considering using FIX, you may wish to download the FIX implementation guide which provides recommended best practices, visit the technical specifications page and also the discussion forums which feature a wealth of knowledge and insight, often contributed by the very individuals who lead the standard’s development.

Additionally, to assist in your search for FIX service providers, please visit the FIX products and services page, which details the offerings of FIX Trading Community member firms.

About FIX Trading Community™

FIX Trading Community™ is the non-profit, industry-driven standards body at the heart of global trading.

The organisation is independent and neutral, dedicated to addressing real business and regulatory issues impacting multi-asset trading in global markets through standardisation, delivering operational efficiency, increased transparency, and reduced costs and risks for all market participants.

Central to FIX Trading Community’s work is the continuous development and promotion of the FIX family of standards, including the core FIX Protocol messaging language, which has revolutionised the trading environment and has successfully become the way the world trades.

As an industry-driven organisation, all FIX Trading Community initiatives are pursued in response to market participant requests. This work is organised through a global network of committees and working groups that attract colleagues, peers and competitors who work together in a collaborative manner, free from commercial conflict, and in a way rarely witnessed in the capital markets to address core industry challenges. These efforts are supported by a small team of resources based in New York, Hong Kong and London.

FIX Trading Community was previously known as FIX Protocol Ltd (and this remains its full legal entity name). Since its launch in 1998, the organisation has achieved tremendous success, developing and encouraging adoption of the FIX messaging standard. However, in recent years, whilst the continuous enhancement and promotion of FIX has remained a core goal, the organisation was also successfully leading work exploring how other non-proprietary, free and open standards could effectively support evolving needs.

This led to the belief that the existing brand, no longer truly reflected the many ways in which the organisation supports the industry, nor the countless opportunities that actively participating in this vibrant community presents. The result of which was the decision to rebrand the organisation as FIX Trading Community in August 2013.

For more information about FIX Trading Community please visit www.fixtradingcommunity.org.