#doFIXdifferently

Chris Lees discusses the challenge for firms completing FIX migration projects. We primarily focus on FIX engine migration, but large migration projects often include multiple pieces of FIX infrastructure. We cover key areas, including API consistency (vocabulary and dictionary), migrating customer-specific transformations, managing network changes, and all-important project tracking & reporting.

In this week’s #dofixdifferently, Chris Lees talks to Christoph John, one of the key contributors to the QuickFIX/J FIX engine. Christoph is a Senior Software Developer for MACD, a financial services software company over in Aachen, Germany. Since 2011 Christoph has been a core code contributor to the QuickFIX/J engine, which is a full-featured FIX messaging engine written 100% in Java. We dive into what it’s like to run open-source software, the history of the QuickFIX/J engine, and how you can get involved.

In this week’s #dofixdifferently, Chris Lees outlines how to make your API documentation genuinely re-usable. Efficient API documentation needs to be both human-readable and machine-readable, and in this episode Chris outlines approaching documentation in the right way, highlighting common pitfalls, and articulating how to go from where you are today over to a new, more re-usable (and automated) future.

In this episode, Chris talks to Oren Miller, the creator and maintainer of QuickFIX, exploring the original motivations for the project, what it’s like maintaining such a popular open-source program, and the role of electronic documentation.

In this week’s episode of #doFIXdifferently, Chris Lees takes a look at the different layers that make up FIX, peeling the FIX onion to highlight some of the component blocks that you might not be aware of.

Chris Lees talks to Gregg Drumma, founder of Boston-based software vendor Gamma Three Trading. In addition to talking all things FIX, Gregg talks more about their FIX Protocol testing tool, FIX Sim, which provides an easy to use FIX simulation environment for testing of trading workflows.

Chris Lees takes an honest look at FIX specifications, how firms are currently using them, and a vision for the future where machine-readable “contracts” unlock automation and efficiency across FIX connectivity, FIX conformance, and customer support.

This week, joining Chris Lees as he takes a look at the FIX landscape, which elements are solved, and which have room for improvement. We cover FIX engines, the challenges of FIX migration, FIX standards, FIX certification, Testing and QA, FIX log parsing, automation, and the importance of machine-readable FIX specifications.

Chris Lees explores doing FIX differently, discussing the systems, tools, and processes that surround FIX, which can help FIX onboarding, and production support to be more efficient. In the #doFIXdifferently series, we will dive into key themes such as automation, and how to be more efficient, and smarter with the resources available.