Cleartrade Exchange Implements FIX 5.0

Cleartrade Exchange (CLTX), the over-the-counter (OTC) commodity derivatives specialist market, has announced the latest release of its electronic trading platform, which features full FIX 5.0 functionality.

CLTX clients will now be able to integrate the exchange's software into their own trading environment in a standardized fashion. The new release of FIX, which allows for connectivity without specialized application program interfaces, is CLTX's primary reason for adoption, says Zhi Rui Ang, operations director at the exchange.

"Although there has been explosive growth in the use of the FIX protocol within the financial community, certain limitations, present in previous versions of FIX, needed to be addressed, for example the tight coupling of the application layer to the business layer in FIX 4.X versions, which limited the ability to adapt to newer functionality offered by later versions," he says. "These limitations have been addressed in FIX 5.0, which is flexible enough to support future requirements of the market."

Other client benefits from the enhancement will include back office integration, market data messaging and optimization, various compliance enhancements for areas such as reporting, and the use of CLTX's price transparency feed as a source for traditional quote vendors.

The implementation was achieved in conjunction with financial software developer Baymarkets, after CLTX defined the technical roadmap for implementation in the EDGE execution engine.