In the rapidly changing financial landscape, technological advancements are revolutionising daily operations for businesses. The integration of cloud computing and automation is reshaping the trading environment, with the FIX protocol playing a pivotal role in these developments.
Michael Barbera, Chief Product Officer for Trading & Market Data at Iress, recently spoke at the Australia FIX conference, exploring our current cloud-centric world and how innovations in the FIX protocol are improving efficiency, connectivity, and transparency for firms.
The impact of cloud
The most significant transformation seen in recent years in the trading industry is the shift towards cloud-native infrastructure. A prominent trend alongside cloud has been the increasing emphasis on automation and orchestration. Historically, client onboarding processes have been lengthy and complex; however, by utilising automation and orchestrations, firms can swiftly establish system connections. As a result, firms benefit from faster onboarding, with timelines shrinking from weeks to hours. This has boosted efficiency, innovation and agility, enabling businesses to launch new products into the market more rapidly.
As cloud adoption evolves, many organisations are moving beyond a "lift-and-shift" approach to fully capitalise on cloud capabilities. This evolution has introduced autonomous recovery systems, which are among the most exciting benefits of cloud technology. These systems are designed to foresee potential issues before they escalate, automatically detecting anomalies and applying fixes in real-time. This minimises the risk of downtime and reduces dependency on human intervention. Scalability becomes seamless, allowing for easy market adaptations.
Visibility is paramount
One of the most significant benefits to the cloud is improved access to data, creating greater transparency, and allowing clients to connect in real-time. In the trading world, the interactions between buy-side and sell-side clients, vendors and banks create a highly complex environment. In order to manage this, capturing data at every point of interaction is key. Having real-time visibility not only helps with identifying potential issues but it improves operational efficiency.
Any disruption between the exchanges of the three key interfaces—clients, banks and vendors— at any one point, has a rippling effect across the entire trading market. Firms must capture data through every transaction within the trading environment to address the complexity; therefore, monitoring what happens between each stage of the ecosystem ensures any potential issue can be identified and addressed promptly.
This visibility enhances operational efficiency—firms and trading venues can swiftly identify potential issues, leading to faster resolutions and more immediate responses to market fluctuations. Real-time visibility into trading operations is paramount, enabling firms to recognise anomalies and inefficiencies as they arise, leading to prompt corrective measures.
All trading vendors are using some variety of cloud offering so it is clear the direction the trading world is heading in. By leveraging the cloud, firms are seeing the enhancement of scalability, cost efficiency and quicker deployment. While the current cloud based trading platform is gaining momentum, the full impact within the trading market may not be seen for several years to come.
Iress FIX Hub
Iress FIX Hub facilitates seamless communication between the buy-side and sell-side within the market, enabling efficient, reliable and fast trade transactions. Iress FIX Hub offers effortless connectivity between firms and many trading venues and counterparties. As the platform provides access to real-time market data, it allows traders to make informed decisions in line with the latest information. This immediacy is crucial to navigate the fast-pace of the markets where timely decisions can significantly impact the outcomes. Staying aligned with the increase in trade activity is a key aspect of Iress FIX Hub; its scalability allows companies to adapt to the ever changing market conditions without compromising outcomes and performance.
Learn more about Iress FIX Hub here.
