Scope of MDDL Market Data Definition Lanaguage (MDDL) was originally chartered with developing a practical standard to describe a security and its price. The concept of "market data" was viewed as very encompassing (see the formation meeting notes) when MDDL was first construed. The original Vocabulary Committee set about defining the scope of content for MDDL and eventually developed a spreadsheet (see files describing the Domains and Descriptors) outlining MDDL. In the end, it was obvious that MDDL covered a broad range of items including NOT JUST securities but related market information and events that affect securities.
Thus, the MDDL Statement of Purpose came to be:
to enable the interchange of information necessary
to account, to analyze, and to trade financial instruments
of the world's markets.
The eXtensible Markup Language
(XML - see www.w3.org/TR/xml)
has become the "de facto" standard for representing content for
interchange between disparate sources. It removes the ugliness of custom datafeeds and capitalizes on a simple,
easy-to-understand, and (if done correctly) self-describing exchange of information. XML was (and remains!)
a good choice for MDDL - and for many specifications in the financial industry. There is an implicit data model
defined by MDDL's use of XML which is now being represented in Unified Modeling Language
(UML - see OASIS UML)
A key element is the ability to exchange information between disparate parties. This isn't about
dictating what information is available - it isn't about limiting the type of data or its definition. MDDL seeks
interoperability at a basic level - a common language and a common way to represent it.
MDDL is about reporting information - it isn't about doing the actual accounting, or trading of
financial insruments - but the information necessary to perform those functions. Thus, MDDL reports data from
trades (so they can be accounted) but MDDL does not have a workflow for doing a trade - or any other business process
like accounting. With MDDL, one can report the results of analysis but MDDL does not dictate what analysis is performed.
The intent is to be inclusive of all the world's interests - from established financial centers to
emerging markets; from front-office to settlement whether it is local or outsourced, "foreign" or "domestic".
Scope of MDDL
Today, MDDL spans nine (9) Domains or Products of market data:
If you feel any information is missing from MDDL, contact us so we may correct any deficiency.