FIX needs to be transport independent (so may people could just use Internet) for the transport layer. FIX 5-0 moves far along in this direction. Take a look at RabbitMQ and AMQP and make a mental note that Red Hat just joined FIX as a full memeber. Another very cool area at FIX is algorithmic trading. Register here for free with just a email, name and firm: http://www.fixprotocol.org/register Then log in! And go to: http://www.fixprotocol.org/working_groups/algowg/documents You will see the press release, plus slides and audio MP3 from the 7/25 press event. You will also get access to the .xml, .xsd and .xst files including sample algo strategies from 15 large firms. Strikes me that perl could be used to render some very nice trader GUI's using that .xml base. For open source FIX engines you can use QuickFix or QuickFix/J. For this thing to really fly however we need a very lightweight FIX engine that uses ws-reliable messaging and ws-security righ over the Internet. I'm not a perl expert but perhaps the guys at Red Hat would have some ideas? Rick