re: how to determine Trader presence in FIX for real-time applications ?
John Greenan / Alignment Systems
15 Oct 2002 4:00AM ET
John,
While I said earlier I don't think this should be part of FIX, I have encountered this problem - that's what I don't think it should be in FIX.
The solution we came up with was very similar to the one Richard suggests...
Each stock has a primary, secondary and tertiary trader.
Each trader belongs to a desk.
Each desk has a desk head.
Overall there is a Head Trader
[I've missed out the global level of regional desks, multilisting and such like, for clarity]
Each trader is either on the desk or off the desk. When leaving the desk the trader can click on "off-the-desk", or else the application will time out and mark the trader as off the desk.
Every order that arrives via FIX in is routed to the primary trader for the stock. The primary has a set time limit to click on an "accept" button. If the primary doesn't accept or is marked as off the desk then the order is pulled from the primary and sent to the secondary. Same logic applies for pulling and routing to the tertiary.
If the tertiary doesn't accept, then it goes to the desk head for the primary trader. If the desk head deosn't accept then the order is routed to the Head Trader.
If the order is routed to the Desk Head or (worst case) the Head Trader, someone is going to get flogged (some things never change!)
As well as this there is a whole series of management information reports - to see response times and where the orders are picked up ("now look here Mr Primary Trader - you've only accepted 20% of your orders - do you want a job?")
Get in touch offline if you'd like more info.
Regards,
John
> John,
>
> I can only tell you what we have done to circumvent this. We have a custom
> build OMS which doensn't have desk functionality. Our FIX engine is
> connected to it via our middleware solution (TIBCO Active Enterprise). We
> have solved this by having a list of traders in the system that should
> handle electronic tading orders, when a trader isn't logged on or doesn't
> respond quickly enough (getting coffee or...) the order is taken away and
> send to the next trader using the middleware. It's crude but it works. If no
> trader responds an email is send out to the head of the trading desk
> indicating no one was available to handle the order. Someone gets flogged !
> The traders should always keep one of them at the desk.
>
> Good luck with your solution and I hope this helps..
>
> Richard Valk
> Technical Consultant
> Dexia Bank Netherlands
> richard.valk@dexiabank.nl
> >
> >
> > I underestand why this can be outside the scope of FIX.
> >
> > I guess what I really would like to know is how are people handling this scenario ?
> >
> > "need to know if trader(or assistant or trader rep) is logged in at client end of a Fix connection"
> >
> >
> > I know applications have have different requirments and everyone does it differently, but any insight into different ways of managing presence at the fix-gateway level would be great.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > While I've not seen this handled through FIX, I've never seen an investment bank turn away business because a trader is off the desk...
> > >
> > > Although it might be an idea to add this to FIX, this is so dependent on the organisational structure (are traders members of desks, are traders covered by a secondary trader if off the desk? A third choice trader if the primary and secondary are off the desk?) that I cannot see that this is "Financial Information Exchange", it's more about coverage and structure.
> > >
> > > As such, IMHO I don't think it's appropriate to add this to the FIX protocol.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > John
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > apparently Fix does not spec. out how to determine if a Trader/User is on-line or not.(AFAIK)
> > > >
> > > > This can be vital information if your fix gateway wants to block sending out messages to your counter party, if the counter-party trader is not loggined into the trading application at the client end.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Any one has to deal with this situation? How do you folks handle this?
> > > >
> > > > I realize presence is very application depenendant and every one does it differently but it would be nice to get a standard way of determining this for real-time order routing.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > regards
> > > > J.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
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>
