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Why XML? Why FIXML? Why now?. FIA -- February 19, 2004. The Challenges Facing Us. Achieve Straight-Through Processing Provide an API for all functions Support ever-increasing transaction volume Support ever-increasing business complexity Standardize across markets
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Why XML? Why FIXML?Why now? FIA -- February 19, 2004
The Challenges Facing Us • Achieve Straight-Through Processing • Provide an API for all functions • Support ever-increasing transaction volume • Support ever-increasing business complexity • Standardize across markets • Increase developer productivity
Why Adopt Extensible Markup Language? • XML is nothing more (or less) than an impossibly flexible method of formatting and describing data • It's flexible because it's simple • And it's powerful because it's flexible
What makes XML powerful? • Data values can get as large as they need to be -- there's no inherent limit • If a field needs to expand, it simply expands. • This is in stark contrast to the hassles associated with positional-format records. • This is a big part of removing legacy field-size limitations in our industry.
What makes XML powerful? (part 2) • New attributes and elements (analogous to fields and records) can simply be added whenever and wherever they're needed. • Elements can contain elements with no limits on the number of levels of nesting. • Complex hierarchical data structures can simply be inserted as needed. • Programs that read the XML but have not yet been modified to take advantage of the new data, need not be affected. • No more searching for space on positional records or dealing with the hassles of creating new record types. • The structure of the XML matches the logical structure of the data.
What makes XML powerful? (part 3) • Numeric values can get as big (or as small) (or as negative) as they need to. • Numeric values contain decimal points. • No more hassles with assumed number of decimal points. • No more defining of decimal locators. • No more truncation of numbers or forcing the use of assumed trailing digits. • No more hassles associated with reading "packed" fields.
What makes XML powerful? (part 4) • It's plain text -- no more hassles associated with transfers across disparate ASCII/EBCDIC environments • It compresses extremely well • There's tremendous software support for it. • Developer productivity can be dramatically improved.
Why adopt FIXML? • FIX is already a widely used standard. • CME in particular already uses FIX for the successful and widely adopted iLink electronic trading interface. • The FIX Protocol Ltd. organization is open. • FIX is adopted across numerous product spaces in the financial services industry.
CME's 3-part FIXML strategy • Position Services • Settlement Price File and other reference data • Trade Management functions
Position Services (available now) • Trade Register • both on-demand and batch • more flexible than the legacy format • support real-time balancing processes • Option exercise and abandonment instructions • Now you can automate these • Position adjustments • Now you can automate these • PCS • support all product types including flex options
Settlement Price file etc. (coming soon) • Provide integrated settlement prices across markets • Include data such as open interest and volume • Provide better reference data
Trade Management functions • SLEDS (available today) • Blocks (wholesale trades) and EFP's (and EFR's and EFS's) (coming soon) • Two-sided submission • Allow give-ups • Feed them through GAINS