The RIXML.org consortium of buy- and sell-side financial industry leaders has announced the Version 2.1 release of its RIXML specification, including the RIXML XML Schema and RIXML Users Guide: Data Dictionary Report. The RIXML investment research standard is designed "to provide extensive capabilities to be able to tag any piece of research content, in any form or media, with enough meta-data information for consumers to search, sort and filter through publisher research and quickly provide highly relevant information to their decision makers." RIXML Version 2.1 "adjusts the standard by incorporating taxonomies to address ratings for both equity and fixed income markets. The new User Guide outlines the approach taken in creating the RIXML standard and explains some fundamental concepts such as XML, object modeling, schemas, etc. Diagrams of the RIXML object model are included as are definitions for the elements and attributes. The RIXML XML Schema formally represents the relationships and components as defined by the object model." Members of the RIXML.org consortium include Asset Managers, Investment Banks, and several Associate Members. These financial industry leaders have joined forces to develop an open, global XML-based RIXML standard for the tagging and delivery of investment research. Its goal is to define an open protocol that will improve the process of categorizing, aggregating, comparing, sorting, searching, and distributing global financial research data. RIXML.org has recently enhanced its public web site to include a "new interactive demo and educational section that demonstrates and describes how RIXML works. Additionally, the new site will enable member firms and industry participants to sign up for email updates, view a calendar of past and upcoming industry events, and access membership information."

Bibliographic Information

RIXML Users Guide: Data Dictionary Report. RIXML Specification Version 2.1. 70 pages. Copyright (c) RIXML.org Limited ('RIXML'). "Currently, the specification covers equities and fixed income research. As the need for RIXML continues to grow, subsequent versions will tackle additional asset classes, such as Commodity and Foreign Exchange research, and so forth." See also the associated Version 2.1 Change Log which highlights the changes between version 2.0 of the RIXML specification and the draft version 2.1.

RIXML XML Schema (.xsd). Represents the relationships and components as defined by the object model, and can also be used to validate instance documents to ensure they are RIXML-compliant. Size: 134K RIXML Specification Version 2.1.

The RIXML Object Model

Documentation on the RIXML Object Model has been divided into "four major sections:

• Source Content: documents the information about the sources that provide investment research. These sources could be the publishers, individual analysts, or teams of analysts.
• Context Description: documents information that describes the content -- such as use, existence, research discipline, related content, product focus, sectors, regions, issuers, and securities.
• Content Description: describes the content itself -- including the title, subtitle, synopsis, and the name of the file or files that constitute the content.
• Legal: deals with legal information that needs to accompany a research product.

Within each one of these documented sections, object-model diagrams are provided that show the classes and the relationships between those classes. The Product class is the root of the RIXML specification and is the aggregate class that comprises the other four classes..." [adapted from the v2.1 spec introduction]

From the Announcement

RIXML.org has made the following enhancements in its Version 2.1 specification:

• Renamed the recommendation element to rating to more closely match the terminology in common use among publishers.

• Renamed the buy, hold, sell and no recommendation values to positive sentiment, neutral sentiment, negative sentiment and no rating respectively.

• Added rating relationship indicator to give context to the rating (i.e., rating is relative to entire industry, rating is relative to the market, rating is to absolute return).

• Added volatility indicator to provide a signal of the potential price fluctuation of the rated entity.

Since the RIXML organization released version 2.0 of its specification for public comment last summer, the industry has experienced a broad shift in the way research publishers provide ratings for covered companies. Mostly in reaction to the changing regulatory climate, publishers have been generally converging on a three-tiered rating system combined with some other indicators for volatility, etc. We've recognized this change, and considered its impact on RIXML. We believe version 2.1 is better matched to what publishers are doing, and that it will be an improved basis for tagging and classification of research content.

"The industry has experienced a broad shift in the way research publishers provide ratings for covered companies," said Andrew Ling of UBS and Sell-Side Co-Chair of the RIXML.org Steering Committee. "As the regulatory climate has changed, we have adjusted RIXML to be better matched to what research publishers are doing today."

Deirdre Goldenbogen of Putnam Investments and Buy-Side Co-Chair of the RIXML.org Steering Committee added, "Through the new ratings fields, RIXML will enable publishers and content consumers of research to continue capturing vital company information in an improved format. We are pleased with the continued evolution of RIXML and look forward to working with members and industry participants as they begin the implementation process of version 2.1."