Imported from previous forum
QuoteRequest allows to ask for a single-side or two-sided quote. Absence of Side means two-sided, presence means to ask for a quote for that side. The quote sent in response should then implicitly have the same side by providing bid or offer fields but not both (=two-sided). Not sure if the Side(54) field has any relevance in your workflow. The Quote message can also be used to for workflows not having a preceding QuoteRequest message. The usage comment says “Required for Tradeable or Counter quotes of single instruments”. It was added together with the OrderQtyData block in FIX 4.4. Side and OrderQty normally belong to orders and not to quotes, i.e. I guess they were added for a special use case.
Have you checked Volume 3 of the FIX spec for information and examples?
If a party sends a QuoteRequest message with Side set to BUY, should a proper Quote response have the Side set to BUY or SELL?
Thanks!