Technical Notice

New Port Request Form for TRACE Transition to Native FIX

January 30, 2026

As previously announced on October 15, 2025 and December 22, 2025, FINRA is transitioning from its legacy FIX Protocol platform to a new Native FIX platform for TRACE trade reporting. Firms are required to switch their current ports to new ports that support Native FIX. Firms will be required to order Native FIX ports via the new FINRA Native FIX Port Request Form available on NasdaqTrader.com or via the Nasdaq Customer Portal:

  • Firms can now order test (NTF) ports and once established can test connectivity and functionality in NTF.
  • Starting February 9, 2026, firms will be able to transition their current production legacy TRACE ports to Native FIX ports. It is strongly recommended that firms validate new production ports on the supported Saturday test dates prior to cutover for production reporting.

Firms must submit separate port request forms for adding new Native FIX ports, and subsequently another for removing legacy ports (using the current legacy Port Request Form).

The Native FIX ports will operate in hot-hot mode. Nasdaq will provide firms/clients with primary, secondary and DR IP addresses for Native FIX ports. Clients will be responsible for monitoring their connections, detecting when there is a connection failure, and failing over to the secondary (or DR) connection to re-establish connectivity. Clients may use any standard FIX Platform to connect, monitor, alert, fail over, etc. 

Next Steps:

  1. Order new Native Fix ports for NTF. Submit a Native FIX Port Request Form, currently only available for NTF. Firms must indicate the TRACE products that are applicable to them.
  2. Test connectivity and functionality of new Native FIX ports in NTF*.
  3. Remove Legacy Ports. Once firms are satisfied with testing, firms must submit Removal Requests for legacy ports via the current legacy form, indicating the applicable TRACE products in NTF.
  4. Starting February 9, 2026, order new Native FIX ports for production. Using the new Native FIX Port Request Form, firms must indicate the TRACE products that are applicable to them.
  5. Test production Native FIX ports. Firms should work with Nasdaq to arrange weekend testing.
  6. Validate testing of new Native FIX ports in production. Determine when to cut over to production reporting using the new Native FIX ports. Notify Nasdaq of go-live date.
  7. Remove Legacy Ports. Firms should determine when to submit Removal Requests of their legacy production FIX ports (using the current legacy form).   

Please note that as of February 9, 2026, all requests for new or additional FIX ports in NTF and Production must be submitted via the new Port Request Form and the current Port Request form will only support Removal Requests of legacy FIX ports. Once firms have fully transitioned to Native FIX, any removals request of Native FIX ports must be done using the new form. While FINRA has not yet determined an exact date for full retirement of all TRACE legacy FIX reporting, we anticipate termination to occur late 4th Quarter 2026. Future Technical Notices will be issued once a definitive retirement date has been determined.  

*TRACE clients may test free of charge in NTF for 30 calendar days. All users must notify [email protected] at the commencement of their testing. Once a user informs the NASDAQ test team, the testing free period will continue uninterrupted for 30 calendar days. After the 30 - day period ends, normal NTF fees will apply for connecting and testing. Questions regarding NTF fees can be directed to Nasdaq Technical Services at (212) 231-5180.

Please contact FINRA Client & System Management  with questions regarding this notice.