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  Application Integration  

Certification/Conformance

For certification purposes, all participating vendors and developers are required to test the software they intend to employ and successfully pass the ELX Platform Test Environment. The purpose of this certification is to ensure that the vendor's software behaves in the most efficient manner and adheres to all published guidelines.

The BGC Partners (BGC) Customer Integration Services team safeguards the integrity of the ELX Exchange and its external clients. ELX requires that each trading participant use conformant software and demonstrate a level of technical and operational readiness before entering the market.

The BGC Customer Integration Services team provides a large array of services and support in order to assist participants and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in their development and certification/conformance to the following areas of the ELX Platform technology:
  • Certification Testing
  • Market Entry and Dress Rehearsals
  • Development Support
  • Volume Testing
  • Testing FIX-based Implementations

Application Program Interface

The ELX Application Program Interface (API) is the software interface between the ELX Platform and a participant’s trading software application (Client Application). The ELX interface is based on BGC’s proprietary API. Development, integration and technical support services are provided directly by BGC Partners as ELX’s authorized technology provider.

Client Applications communicate with the ELX Platform via the API using a set of pre-defined calls and responses. Each time an API Function Call is made, the API copies the structures passed to it in the Function Call. The calling application determines the release of any memory allocated to the structures once the function call has returned.

The ELX Platform maintains a central order book for the entire market and matches orders when appropriate. It also ensures that the best possible price is achieved for all business conducted in the market, in the fairest manner to all market participants.

Financial Information eXchange

The Financial Information eXchange (FIX) Protocol is a series of messaging specifications for the electronic communication of trade-related messages. FIX is a specification around which software developers can create commercial or open-source software.

An ELX FIX interface is available for participants who prefer using FIX rather than ELX’s direct API as a software interface between the ELX Platform and Client Applications.

The ELX FIX interface is offered in two different versions:
  • FIX 4.2 standard implementation
  • FIX 4.2 version compatible with other exchanges
FIX 4.4 will be implemented in the future.
 
Complete message specifications are available from the ELX Integration Services team (sales@elxfutures.com).