Samuel Gaer, Chief Information OfficerNew York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.FIA FIXML Workshop

April 22, 2004New York, NY

The Importance of FIXML• FIX:

– A standards-based protocol.– Widely accepted within the financial services industry.

• FIXML:– An efficient way to transmit standardized messages

across disparate systems.– As with other implementations of XML, tags

(descriptors) can be customized. – Individual implementations of FIX and FIXML with

custom tags are verging on the proprietary, negating the purpose of FIX.

Our Vision• We are FIX purists.

– We want to avoid custom tags and our new systems will not produce them.– We propose a ‘North American futures exchange’ standard.– We believe that this widely accepted implementation of FIX and FIXML will

benefit every facet of our industry. • We believe that FIXML works.

– FIXML is platform independent.– FIXML lowers everyone’s costs.

• Standards in . . . Standards out!

Where We Stand• NYMEX ClearPortsm Trading

– The Exchange’s web-based trading platform that offers access to more than 60 energy futures markets.

– Accepts FIXML 4.2 messages.– Sends FIXML 4.2 messages.

• Universal Trade Blotter– An API into the Exchange’s Trade

Management System (TMS).– Will be FIXML 4.2 compliant soon.

• Electronic Order Routing (EOR)– Will be FIXML 4.2 compliant.

• Allocations– Allocate Trades via FIXML

• Post Trade Processing– Trade File Formats in FIXML

Our FIXML Future

How We Get There• We are upgrading all of our systems

to support the FIXML 4.2 protocol.

• We cannot succeed alone. For FIXML to work, we need our industry’s cooperation.

• The sooner we, as an industry, commit to a timeline for implementing FIXML 4.2, the sooner we will all be on the same platform.

• In the long term, FIXML reduces everyone’s costs.