The FIX_DataManager provides a means to retrieve and store standing data about the products that can be traded on an exchange through the FIX SecurityDefinitionRequest/Response mechanism.

When used in conjunction with the Subscription Manager and Order Manger, this can be used to automatically retrieve extra information about a particular instrument prior to submitting a request to the market.

For example, some exchanges require a numerical instrument id to be specified when placing an order rather than a descriptive name of the product. In this case, the tag number of the instrument id would be added to the OrderManager.SecDefRequestTags configuration parameter which would cause the Order Manager to issue a request for this information to the Data Manager. The Data Manager would then send a security definition request to the exchange containing all the order parameters and providing it is possible to disambiguate the required product, the data manager will return the instrument id back to the Order Manager ready to be inserted into the order itself. Once the data is retrieved, it is cached for future requests.

It will depend on the target exchange whether or not this feature is necessary and possible.