FIX 4.4 Specification Released

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Imported from previous forum

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The FIX 4.4 specification has been officially released and is available for download from "Specifications".

** PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FIXML DTD (XML SYNTAX)INFORMATION WILL BE ADDED TO THE FIX 4.4 SPEC DOCS BY MAY 5, 2003 **

The FIX 4.4 specification includes numerous enhancements beyond FIX 4.3. Major changes in FIX 4.4 include:
Major changes in FIX 4.4 include:

  1. Incorporates proposed changes from the BMA/FPL (Bond Market Association/FIX Protocol Limited) Global Fixed Income committee’s Gap Analysis:
  • Added/enhanced support for US Treasuries, Agencies, Municipals, TBA Mortgages, Corporates, Commercial Paper, Repurchase Agreements and Security Lending transactions as well as their European counterparts.
  • Quoting messages enhanced to support FI negotiation process.
  • Minor enhancements to single and muli-leg orders.
  • Developed an Allocation model supporting 2-party Fixed Income trading and enhanced Allocation and Trade Capture Report messaging to support 3rd party FI reporting.
  1. Incorporates proposed changes from the FIA (Futures Industry Association) and FPL Global Derivatives committee:
  • Enhanced Allocation messaging to support street-side listed futures and options requirements (i.e. Clearing Firms). Added new messages to support "allocation claim" or response.
  • Enhanced Trade Capture Report messaging to support block trade and exchange for physical (off floor) trade reporting for listed futures and options markets.
  • Added new messages to support Position Maintenance, Position Reporting, including Exercise and Assignment handling.
  1. Significant enhancements and general overhaul to the Allocation and Settlement Instructions messaging section in Volume 5 to include support for Confirm/Affirm and Allocation Report.
  • Eliminated bi-directional flow of Allocation and AllocationAck message by introducing Allocation Instruction, Allocation Instruction Ack, Allocation Report and Allocation Report Ack messages.
  • Removed "implicit" support of confirm from allocation message set to supporting explicit confirmation and affirmation flow via new Confirmation and Confirmation Ack messages.
  • Improved "ready-to-book" messaging using the allocation message set.
  • Improved support for standing Settlement Instructions adding an explicit Settlement Instructions Request message as well as overhauling the contents of the Settlement Instructions message.
  • Improved support for the concept of "warehousing" which is applicable to certain markets.

  1. Overall enhancements to Trade Capture Report messaging.

  2. Overall enhancements to multi-leg instrument support.

The ZIP files will include 7 volumes, FIXML 4.4 DTD, and Release Notes in either Microsoft Word or PDF format and can be downloaded from:
http://www.fixprotocol.org/cgi-bin/Spec.cgi?menu=4

The FIX Technical Committee will also available make available an online "reference" tool generated from the FIXML DTD.

Scott Atwell
FIX Technical Committee co-chair