Browser-Based Trading Platform

This project set out to replicate the speed and density of a native desktop trading terminal — entirely inside a browser tab. Built on DHTMLX's high-performance grid system, it surfaces real-time order books, trade history, and position data at the frame rates traders expect. The backend communication layer started on FIX Protocol and was later migrated to Protobuf to reduce message size and parsing overhead at scale.

What it does

• 01Real-time order book and trade feed with sub-second updates
• 02Desktop-grade data grids (DHTMLX) handling thousands of rows without UI stutter
• 03Order entry and management interface with validation and confirmation flows
• 04FIX Protocol integration for full order lifecycle (new, modify, cancel, fill)
• 05Protobuf messaging layer replacing FIX for lower latency and smaller payloads
• 06Responsive layout adapting to multi-monitor trader workstation setups

What made it hard

1. 01

   Rendering thousands of live-updating rows in the browser without frame drops required careful DOM recycling and batched React state updates, leaning heavily on DHTMLX's virtualised grid internals.

2. 02

   Integrating FIX Protocol — a message format designed for native financial systems — into a React frontend meant building a custom parser and message router that could handle the session-layer handshake and heartbeat logic in the browser runtime.

3. 03

   Migrating from FIX to Protobuf mid-production required coordinating schema changes with the backend team, versioning message definitions carefully, and running both protocols in parallel during the cutover window to avoid downtime.