Charles River’s Integrated and Broker-Neutral FIX Network
Globally, electronic trading continues to grow at an ever-increasing rate, including new trading tools and strategies across all asset classes. Enabled by the FIX (Financial Information eXchange) protocol, electronic trading is critical for both buy-side and sell-side firms.
Keeping up with the constantly-changing complexities of FIX requires significant investment. Charles River Development has continued to invest heavily in FIX software development, testing and support – enhancing capabilities for FIX versions 4.4 and 5.0, as well as functionality to support FIX allocations, derivatives, FX, algorithmic trading, customization, and complex process logic and error checking. Only Charles River offers integrated end-to-end expertise for testing, certification and support for each trading destination with the Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS) – critical for reducing risks and enhancing operational efficiencies.
The full integration of Charles River IMS and the Charles River Network (Network) offers Charles River IMS clients, who subscribe to the Network, a single point of contact for both their investment management and electronic trading/FIX-related needs. Simple stand-alone networks require extra tuning, testing and certification resources to be compatible with an OMS. Charles River provides an integrated solution, delivering value to clients without the additional effort.
“It’s impossible for stand-alone networks to offer the level of comprehensive service that we provide,” said Ed Fitzpatrick, Director, Network Services. “Most networks only offer basic telecommunications and FIX session connectivity. The OMS piece of the puzzle simply doesn’t exist. And successful, low-risk electronic trading is impossible without any OMS expertise or access.” Additionally, Fitzpatrick believes that networks based on FIX hubs not only add latency and processing delays, but the additional risks of incorrect tags and mapping during translation. Users are severely limited in their adoption of enhanced capabilities and customization options. ”Clients, as well as sell-side brokers, tell us that the Network’s ‘one-stop shop’ is a major benefit over stand-alone networks where buy-side firms are responsible for the complete network management.”
With the Charles River Network, clients see their total cost of ownership decrease in three main areas:
- Staffing: Fewer internal resources for IMS product and network management and issue resolution across multiple parties and regions
- Time: Faster FIX connection configuration; eliminate inefficiencies from lack of customization; faster issue resolution
- Risk: Fewer trading errors due to improper configuration and/or testing
We will continue our considerable investment in the Network. To ensure that electronic trading support and fees are equitable for all Charles River IMS clients, we are currently reviewing the level of support we can provide when non-Charles River networks are involved.
Launched in 2005, the Charles River Network now comprises over 100 Charles River IMS clients, 400 brokers, and more than 3,400 live broker-client connections. Comprehensive service includes:
- Full integration with Charles River IMS
- 24x7 Charles River IMS and FIX support
- Expertise in Charles River IMS, FIX, and each sell-side provider – enabling new functionality and resolving issues quickly with one call
- End-to-end testing and certification with each sell-side provider multiple times per year, as needed
- Ability to customize each connection to individual client needs
- End-to-end connectivity status
- High-performance, low-latency, resilient network design
- Charles River IMS FIX Administration Option for proactive monitoring, alerting, and response
- FIX session management
- FIX telecommunications connectivity
For more information on the Charles River Network, please contact your relationship manager or Terry Lavigne, Manager, Business Development, +1 781 425 6485, or TerryLavigne@crd.com.
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