Technical Notice

REMINDER - FINRA TRACE Securitized Products Re platform and Data Feed Protocol Changes

December 18, 2024

As part of its Transparency Services improvement initiative, beginning Monday, May 19, 2025, FINRA will re-platform TRACE Securitized Products to a new Linux-based operating system. FINRA requires client testing participation for this project.

Trade Reporting:

TRACE clients who utilize FIX for SP trade entry and other transactions should test all FIX Tags to ensure they are properly being processed.   

Data Feeds:

FINRA will introduce a new protocol to the TRACE Securitized Products Data feeds – SPDS/SPDS-144A. TRACE data feed clients must adhere to the new protocol and feed changes as described below. FINRA has updated the SPDS and SPDS-144A specifications, IP address configurations and the MOLD/UDP 64 specification.

Data Feed Protocol and Retransmissions:

MOLD/UDP 64 will replace the current non-interactive simplex mode using Internet Protocol (IP). Additionally, client retransmission capability to retrieve data packets will be automated via the use of dedicated unicast addresses; this will replace the current manual requests for data retransmission. Once requests are processed, the retransmitted messages will be disseminated via the unicast retransmission connection.

Data Feed Message Header and Data Content:

Sections 2 and 3 of the TRACE data feed specifications have been modified by eliminating references to network communications. In addition, the Message Header and data messages have been updated to reflect label and content changes.

Message Header: The Message Header will be modified to 24 bytes. 

  • The Session Identifier and Retransmission Requester fields commonly included in the Message Header, will be removed from the Message Header and now be included in the MOLD/UDP 64 message protocol layer.
  • The Message Sequence Number will now be included in the MOLD/UDP 64 message protocol layer.
  • The Message Sequence Number field is renamed “Trade Identifier” and will be 7 bytes.  The Trade Identifier is used for tracking trades and is unique per session.

Control Messages:

  • Line Integrity, Sequence Number Reset, and End of Retransmission Control messages commonly included in the feed will now be included in the MOLD/UDP 64 message protocol layer.
  • Start of Day, End of Day, End of Trade Reporting, and End of Transmissions will be disseminated once and not three times.

Data Messages:

The Original Message Sequence Number field in the Cancel and Correction messages are renamed to “Original Trade Identifier”.  When the new system goes into effect on May 19, 2025, the Original Trade Identifier field will be populated with the Original Sequence Number for trade cancels and corrections for trades that occurred prior to new system implementation for a T+20 period after the new system is live. Once the T+20 period expires the Original Trade Identifier field will be populated with the Original Trade Identifier for trade cancel and correction activity.

Data Feed Network Communications:

New SPDS and SPDS-144A Ports and Multicast Addresses   will be employed when MOLD/UDP 64 is introduced. FINRA will continue to offer data via Primary A and Primary B groups (NY Metro; Ashburn), and TRACE data feed clients are encouraged to process both groups.  In addition, FINRA has employed Disaster Recovery groups to be utilized in the event of catastrophic failure encountered at the data centers. FINRA encourages data feed clients to also be prepared to process the Disaster Recovery groups.

Help Getting Started:

Clients with questions on the MOLD/UDP 64 protocol should contact Trading Services at 212.231.5180. Clients needing network assistance for setup for any of the new routes should contact [email protected].  

Testing Period:

FINRA will furnish a formal test schedule in a separate technical notice. It is required that all TRACE data feed clients will accommodate the data feed changes by Monday, May 19, 2025.

Please email FINRA Client and System Management with questions regarding this notice.