The FIX protocol (Buyside and Sellside) is a message standard designed to facilitate electronic exchange of securities-related information between brokerage houses, Electronic Communication Networks (ECN), custodians, and banks.

Originally designed to support domestic U.S. equity trading with message traffic flowing directly between principals, the protocol evolved to support limited cross-border and fixed income trading, as well. The protocol now enables third parties to participate in the delivery of messages between trading partners, and it is expected that the functionality will continue to expand in future releases.

The iWay Adapter for FIX supports two event models.

• Buyside events. For this event, the adapter picks up a file and passes it to an event variable within a business process. This event also can receive a FIX message by listening at a specified host and port number.
• Sellside events. For this event, the adapter picks up a file and passes it to an event variable within a business process.

The iWay Adapter for FIX enables developers to read, write, and enrich FIX transactions easily, while shielding them from the complexities of the computing environment. By simplifying transaction handling for developers, it significantly reduces the time, cost, and skill level required for integration projects.

FIX is flexible and platform independent. The message protocol, as defined, supports the following electronic conversations:

• Equity order submissions, cancellations, and replacements
• Equity execution reporting
• Equity order status
• Equity trade allocation
• Indication of interest communication
• Completed trade advertisements
• Directed e-mail and news messaging

The FIX protocol is defined at the session and application levels. The session level concerns the delivery of data, and the application level defines business-related data content. This protocol is independent of the telecommunications protocol (X.25, asynch, Internet, and so on) and electronic delivery. Currently, the FIX protocol is only a specification for the format in which data (also known as messages) can be exchanged for a given type of transaction.

The iWay Adapter for FIX can register as a client with a FIX system and receive documents from the system. For details on the configuration and operation of the adapter, see the iWay Adapter for FIX User's Guide.