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Common Use Cases

These are the most common ways clients use Conncentric. Find the one closest to what you need, then follow the setup guide for that pattern.

1. Receive trade confirmations from a venue​

The scenario: Your trading system sends orders to a venue. The venue sends back execution reports and trade confirmations. You want those confirmations delivered to your back-office system or a Kafka topic so your other systems can act on them.

Venue ──FIX──▶ Conncentric ──▶ Kafka topic

What you set up: A single adapter with a FIX Initiator connector. Your system connects to the venue, receives inbound messages, and the pipeline forwards them to a Kafka topic.

How to set it up:

  1. Get your connection details from the venue (host, port, SenderCompID, TargetCompID, FIX version)
  2. Create an adapter, choosing FIX Initiator as the connector type
  3. Add a Kafka Producer as the target in the pipeline
  4. If the venue requires encrypted connections, confirm with your infrastructure team that TLS termination is configured at the load balancer

Key settings to ask your venue for: Host address, port number, SenderCompID, TargetCompID, FIX version, and whether encryption is required.

2. Send orders to a trading venue​

The scenario: Your order management system (OMS) or trading platform produces orders. The venue requires them in FIX format. You want Conncentric to pick up orders from a Kafka topic and deliver them to the venue.

Kafka topic ──▶ Conncentric ──FIX──▶ Venue

What you set up: A single adapter with a Kafka Consumer connector that reads from your orders topic, and a FIX session as the target.

How to set it up:

  1. Get your connection details from the venue
  2. Make sure the orders topic exists in Kafka before enabling the adapter
  3. Create an adapter, choosing Kafka Consumer as the connector type
  4. Set the FIX session as the target in the pipeline
  5. If your messages need reformatting before they reach the venue, add transforms in the Pipeline Designer

Deployment mode: Use Active / Passive, since only one instance should be sending orders to a venue at a time to avoid duplicate orders.

3. Accept inbound connections from a counterparty​

The scenario: A counterparty or prime broker connects to your firm over FIX. Instead of building a FIX server yourself, Conncentric acts as the acceptor. It listens for their connection and routes their messages into your systems.

Counterparty ──FIX──▶ Conncentric ──▶ Kafka topic

What you set up: An adapter with a FIX Acceptor connector. You give the counterparty your IP address and port, and Conncentric listens for their connection.

How to set it up:

  1. Create an adapter, choosing FIX Acceptor as the connector type
  2. Set the port you want to listen on (your IT team will need to open this port in the firewall)
  3. Give the counterparty your IP address, port, SenderCompID, and TargetCompID
  4. Set up the pipeline to route their messages to the right destination

Note: Your IT team needs to make the chosen port accessible from outside your network so the counterparty can reach it.

4. Bridge two venues or protocols​

The scenario: You receive FIX messages from one venue and need to forward them to another venue, or convert them and put them on Kafka, or both. This is sometimes called a "FIX bridge."

Venue A ──FIX──▶ Conncentric ──FIX──▶ Venue B
                      │
                      └──────────────▶ Kafka topic

What you set up: Two adapters. One accepts or initiates the inbound connection and publishes to Kafka. A second reads from Kafka and delivers to the outbound destination. Kafka acts as the buffer between them.

How to set it up:

  1. Create the inbound adapter using the pattern from Use Case 1 or 3
  2. Create the outbound adapter using the pattern from Use Case 2
  3. Both adapters share a Kafka topic as the bridge

This is the most common enterprise pattern. Your Connamara representative can provide reference bundle configurations for this setup.

5. Distribute market data to multiple consumers​

The scenario: Your platform receives a market data feed from a venue. Multiple internal teams or systems need access to it. You want to fan it out to multiple Kafka topics so each consumer can read independently.

Venue (market data) ──FIX──▶ Conncentric ──▶ topic: equities
                                          ──▶ topic: options
                                          ──▶ topic: audit-log

What you set up: A single adapter with multiple routes in the pipeline. Each route filters for a different message type and sends it to a different Kafka topic.

How to set it up:

  1. Create an adapter with a FIX Initiator connector
  2. In the Pipeline Designer, add multiple routes, one per destination topic
  3. Add a filter to each route so only the right message types go to each topic

See Pipeline Designer → Routes for how to set up multiple routes.

Not sure which pattern fits?​

Contact your Connamara representative or support team. They can help map your specific integration to the right setup.