Imported from previous forum
[ original email was from H. Scott Buckwalter - scott@easetech.com ]
FIX v. 4.1: In the description table for the IOI message, property Side (54) is described as "Side of Indication, Valid values: 1=Buy, 2=Sell". If you look at the table of all field definitions, Side (54) has 2 new values, "7=Undisclosed (for IOIs)" and "8=Cross (orders where counterparty is an exchange)". I think the description table for the IOI message is wrong and should say that "7=Undisclosed" is also a valid value (not just buy and sell).
My question is what about other messages and the other new value “8=Cross”? I figure that the “7=Undisclosed” value is only valid for IOIs and not valid with any other message since an undisclosed Order just doen’t make any sense. Correct? Also, The “8=Cross” value is valid for all other messages (ie: Quotes, Quote Requests, Orders, Execs, and Allocations) since they are all directly related to orders. But what about IOIs? Can Side (54) = Cross (8) for an IOI or is that an invalid value? My read of the spec is that it should not be allowed but that may be an oversite like the “7=Undisclosed” oversite and should be valid.