The Meixner distribution is a special case of the generalized z-distributions. Its properties make it potentially very useful in modeling short-term financial returns. This article proposes an algorithm to simulate the Meixner distribution, and shows how to obtain maximum likelihood estimators of its parameters. A GARCH-type model is then assessed, assuming that the innovation distribution is a standardized Meixner. Goodness of fit properties are investigated for some real financial time series, using bootstrap tests based on the empirical process of the residuals.