Overview of the FIX component

The Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol is a message standard that was developed to facilitate the electronic exchange of information that is related to securities transactions. It is used between trading partners that want to automate communications.

Many business functions are supported by the message protocol. Initially, FIX was intended to support US domestic trading with message traffic being exchanged between principals. As the FIX protocol evolved, a number of fields were added to enable cross-border trading, derivatives, fixed income and other products. This functionality is expected to continue as subsequent releases of FIX become available.

The Pack for Financial Payments, FIX component consists of a set of IBM Transformation Extender type trees and maps that form the basis for a messaging library for larger solutions that require simple FIX message creation, parsing and validation.

It is important to note that FIX is not a software application. It is instead a specification, around which developers can create commercial, or open-source software as needed to address specific business needs. Today, as the leading trade communication protocol, FIX is integral to an array of other management and trading systems, users of which often benefit from the systems without knowing the language itself.