System provides control over inbound and outbound order flow.

Continuing global adoption of electronic trading, coupled with increasing regulatory uncertainties and volatile market conditions, have put a tremendous amount of infrastructure and cost pressure on leading brokers and asset managers.

Trading desks face increased pressure to capture and optimize increasing volumes of electronic order flow, while maintaining strict control over their costs.

To address this, Fidessa has launched a FIX Portal, an end-to-end, application-neutral connectivity service designed to enhance monitoring and performance, while improving transparency in the messaging infrastructure.

“The FIX Portal controls and manages inbound order flow into trading apps, so rather than rejecting an order, the order can be captured and repaired,” Darren Newby, connectivity marketing manager at Fidessa, told Markets Media.

The Fidessa FIX Portal utilizes a fully hosted, high performance FIX engine and a user-friendly web interface to offer real-time message monitoring, customization and rule-based routing.

A FIX engine is a piece of software that manages a network connection, creates and parses outgoing and incoming messages, respectively, and recovers if something goes wrong. A FIX engine manages the session and application layers and is the single piece of software you need in order to FIX-enable trading or order management systems.

In the context of a trading system , a FIX engine is the interface to the outside world, which, together with a network, allows you to trade and exchange-related information to be communicated  in a standard fashion. Thus, to FIX-enable an application refers to the integration of a FIX engine and connection to a routing network.

The FIX Portal provides firms with the building blocks to create their own private networking solution and enables them to integrate any FIX-compliant system with that network. At the same time, it offers full integration with Fidessa’s own global trading network, a worldwide community of 2,700 buy-sides and 650 brokers.

“Fidessa has developed its own high-performance FIX engine, which connects inbound orders received via the Fidessa Global Connectivity Network with both Fidessa and non-Fidessa trading platforms,” said Newby. “It glues together multiple inbound FIX sources and redistributes order flow into multiple trading apps.”

Fidessa’s FIX Portal comprises three major service modules: network monitoring, message management and private networking.

Network monitoring includes real-time session and message control of all private and external network connections.

Message management includes message management and rule-based routing tools that facilitate the integration of inbound and outbound connectivity with any trading applications or global FIX destinations;

Private networking allows users to build and maintain their own private network environment and supports direct, point-to-point, low-latency connectivity requirements.

“The FIX Portal provides a control point where users can monitor the connections between the networks from where orders get brought in and their own downstream systems,” said Nigel Holmes-Mitchell, head of connectivity hosted marketing at Fidessa.