1. A method of electronically providing financial data to one or more recipients, the method being performed by a computer system that comprises at least one processor, at least one memory operatively coupled to at least one of the processors, and at least one network interface operatively coupled to at least one of the processors, and the method comprising: receiving through at least one of the network interfaces data that comprises a plurality of values; in response to receiving the data, automatically selecting, from a data dictionary stored in the memory, a type of message for use in transmitting the data, the selected type of message including a plurality of fields that includes at least one required field and at least one implicitly-included optional field; assembling in the memory a data structure that represents the message, the data structure comprising an event+ id and the plurality of fields, each field comprising one of the values, and the event+ id being represented as a single number that comprises (a) an event id that identifies the type of message, such that the type of message includes the at least one required field, and (b) additional identifying data that identifies the at least one implicitly-included optional field; and transmitting the data structure through the network interface in a data stream.