Industry news & insights.

In this week's #doFIXdifferently, we take a look at how firms currently use log files, and how they can be a gold mine of information about your API and your customers. Today logs are everywhere and easily accessible, and if you have a question about how your API is behaving, then logs are often the first port of call. Some firms are using tools like Elastic Search of Splunk to manage and understand logs. But what do you actually do with them?

Chris Lees explores what a more automated vision of a FIX pipeline might look like. A rapidly-emerging trend in software deployment is the idea of continuous integration and deployment. Done correctly, it can dramatically accelerate your software lifecycle without compromising testing. In this episode, Chris walks through how continual integration/deployment might apply to the #FIXProtocol world. And identify machine-readable documentation as THE critical lynchpin to making it work.

In this week's #90secondFIX, Chris Lees explores how to get the most out of PDF and XML FIX documentation. Where having accurate PDF and XML documentation is good, how can we take it a step further and make it easier to manage internally, and easier to understand for your customers.

In today's #90secondFIX, Chris Lees answers the question of why the FIX protocol has so much variability to it. The FIX protocol itself is flexible by design. Trading venues, investment banks, they all compete based on functionality, and therefore the protocol needs enough consistency to allow people to understand what is being articulated,

FIX Algorithmic Trading Definition Language, better known as FIXatdl, is a standard for the exchange of meta-information developed in the mid-2000s to address the problems around algorithmic trading definition. An algo is driven by a series of parameters that the bank needs its customers to send in. How do you define these things? How do you convey exactly what the parameters are? What the valid values are? How should they be laid out on a particular UI section, for example?

In this mini-series as part of #doFIXdifferently​, Chris Lees introduces FIX log parsers; what they are, how they can help you and your team, and takes a look at some examples of parsers currently available.

How can you improve your FIX conformance testing? Chris Lees shares his 10 top tips. Organize your conformance test really clearly. Make sure they're in well-defined sections that are easy to remove. Tie them to customer capabilities as you go through things with your customer. You'll understand what they're capable of; track those things as you go...

What does your FIX team look like in 2021? It's safe to say that our working environments have changed somewhat since this time last year. But how have teams had to adapt to the current status quo, and how can FIX teams remain united when working remotely? In this episode of #doFIXdifferently, Chris Lees shares his top tips for managing a FIX connectivity team in a fragmented world.

What is FIX API conformance or certification, and why do you need it? When someone's trying to connect to your API for the first time, it's important to test the connection to ensure that they can talk to your API correctly and effectively. Doing this in the UAT, or a customer test environment prevents any issues from arising prior to going into production.

Why are more firms merging their production support and FIX onboarding functions? What are the advantages of re-using niche skills and tools? We explore the reasons why this is happening and argue the importance of giving production support better tooling, to allow them to handle more first-line FIX support which – in turn – can free up your FIX onboarders to bring on more customers faster.