10:25 AM
Boston Stock Exchange To Roll FIX This Fall
The Boston Stock Exchange is planning to roll out the FIX messaging protocol in support of a group of its member brokerage firms in the third quarter.
Eventually, FIX is expected to become the primary messaging protocol for indications of interest (IOIs) that are routed to Beacon--the BSE-s electronic limit order book.
Today, IOIs that are delivered to Beacon are driven by the Common Message Switch (CMS), the exchange-s legacy messaging protocol. But at least two BSE members have agreed to adopt FIX after the exchange goes live with it. One of those firms, says BSE president and chief operating officer James Crofwell, is State Street Brokerage.
However, while noting that State Street has already begun testing a FIX interface to Beacon, Crofwell says that the exchange has not yet seen a huge cry for the modern messaging protocol. "The FIX demand here hasn-t been as quick to evolve as the FIX buy-side to sell-side connections, which have grown in leaps and bounds," concedes Crofwell.
That said, however, FIX figures to play an important role in the evolution of the BSE-s trading floor technology systems in the future. One exchange system that is on the verge of making its debut is Beacon Remote--an off-site trading system that enables brokerage firms to trade BSE-listed stocks, as specialists, outside the floor of the exchange (ETW, 8/18/00). Beacon Remote, which is currently in beta tests at two BSE member sites, is expected to go live between late September and mid-October.