The FIX Protocol Organization today announced that its algorithmic trading language has entered beta stage, a move that foretells of coming advances in the industry.  This language allows for a certain execution strategies to be transacted in a standard way across a wide range of markets, and, if the technology gains sufficient ground, stands to reduce the cost of rebalancing ETF portfolios against indexes or targets.  Furthermore, quantitative portfolios and those comprised of holdings from different markets should see even greater relative improvements in cost of management.

    The sooner broker-dealers and ETF issuers fully embrace this technology, the sooner these infrastructure improvement will reduce cost for all involved.  I look forward to tracking the progress of this technology, though hopefully in brighter times for the quantitative fund sector.