The FIX API is an invaluable tool many professional traders use to increase the speed and reliability of trading. With a high level of flexibility and customisation these protocols offer, it is essential to use them if you want to trade as a professional. In this review, we will discuss Exante’s FIX API. As a broker focused on financial technology innovation, Exante provides the protocol to help their advanced users connect directly to liquidity providers and market makers in Europe and North America to maximise their trading experience.
About Exante
Exante is a broker that offers direct access to all financial markets and instruments from one single multi-currency account. It was established in 2011 by Anatoly Knyazev, Alexey Kirienko, and Gatis Eglitis. Based in Europe, the firm also has locations in and follows the regulations of London, Hong Kong, Malta, and Cyprus. As of the time of writing, it is possible for traders registered with Exante to buy and sell over 600,000 instruments, ranging from stocks, indices, currencies, commodities (precious metals), funds, futures, and beyond. Built for professionals, the minimum trading deposit is 10,000 EUR.
What is FIX API?
FIX API stands for Financial Information Exchange Application Programming Interface. Essentially, it is a set of protocols and standards that financial institutions use to facilitate communication between different systems involved in trading assets such as stocks, commodities, and currencies. The FIX API is widely accepted as a standard in the industry, and it allows for real-time trading and access to market data, which helps to minimise slippage.
The FIX API protocol enables traders to connect to a broker’s trading server directly through an API, rather than through any other avenues, such as a web-based trading platform. This provides traders with a much faster connection to the market, as well as significantly more control over the trading process. This is why many institutional and professional investors favour it, as they require fast and reliable access to market data to make investment decisions quickly.
Traders with experience can also develop custom trading algorithms that can be executed with the FIX API, or they can automate certain trading strategies for a hands-free trading experience. Bypassing the need for intermediaries such as brokers, traders have much greater flexibility about how they want to trade, when they want to trade, and the overall execution of their trades.
Review of Exante’s FIX API
Exante’s FIX API allows professional traders to design and run algorithms directly on their hardware, and they allow traders access to over 50 markets from their environment. Traders can also employ custom API requests, get normalised data from all exchanges, and quickly relay large chunks of data that can boost their trade execution.
There are multiple live FIX servers that Exante offers, including London, London LD4 DC, Moscow DataSpace DC, New York NY4 DC, the Equinix CH3 data centre in Chicago, and servers in Germany. The extra advantage that Exante offers is the ability for users to connect to two servers simultaneously for backup purposes, which greatly minimises risks for traders who are used to instant execution and deals in large volumes.
Support offered by Exante
When it comes to support offered by Exante, professional traders who work with this broker can find a comprehensive manual that has instructions on how they can integrate the FIX API into their existing systems. Regardless of their hardware and computing resources, they can trade with ease right from their server, and they can implement custom strategies with their own equipment.
Exante also offers a built-in help centre on-site and allows users to contact support in several ways, including the use of email and phone calling.
How to integrate the FIX API and start trading with Exante
If you are keen on trading with near-zero latencies, you can integrate the API and trade from your own hardware by following these steps:
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT) FIX credentials
You must first be a registered member of Exante, and you can do so by visiting their website. As a professional trading service, there is a minimum deposit, and you should ensure that you meet it. Once you have registered and verified your identity, you can request UAT credentials from your Account Manager. If you do not receive any confirmation or credentials, you can also contact their support team to request one directly.
- Platform connection
Once you have your credentials, you can try to connect to the platform. You will find more detailed instructions, including Logon messages that you should expect to see. When you have connected, you can request quotes for the instruments you would like to trade, by sending request messages. Detailed examples can be viewed in Exante’s FIX API manual, which is on their website.
- Sending an order
Once you have decided on an instrument, you can send an order with a similar message. Once you have done that, you should receive an execution report.
- View code examples
Exante offers a wealth of code examples for available messages and tags that you can have access to as their client. You can find them in their libraries, and these code examples are written in Python and Golang.
- Finalise orders
When you have finished integration and testing the software, you will be ready to go live. You can once again contact your Account Manager for FIX API credentials.
- Connect to the server
Next, you can establish a secure connection between your server and the EXANTE server. This involves picking your live FIX server. Depending on your location, your closest data centre may be different. Some live FIX servers offered by Exante include London, London LD4 DC, Germany, New York NY4 DC, Moscow DataSpace DC, and Equinix CH3 data centre in Chicago. You can connect to two servers for backup purposes to minimise risk, but you should ensure you understand when live server maintenance takes place for each server.
Final words
It is essential to remember that trading carries risk and that there is no such thing as guaranteed profits. If you are a professional trader looking to integrate the FIX API into your existing trading systems, you should ensure you have a thorough understanding of how the protocol works before going live.