Valid values for Fix tags

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1

Imported from previous forum

2

Hi,

Many tags have a specified set of vaid values .
For example:

Tag 581 : AccountType
AbbrName: AcctTyp int Type of account associated with an order

Valid Values:
1 - Account is carried on customer side of the books
2 - Account is carried on non-customer side of books
3 - House Trader
4 - Floor Trader
6 - Account is carried on non-customer side of books and is cross margined
7 - Account is house trader and is cross margined
8 - Joint back office account (JBO)

Does this mean that we cannot use any other values for AccountType(say dealings acoount)
Do Fix vendors support this sort of customisation?

Thanks,
Jayashree

3

Hi Jayashree,

Your post has two questions:-

Q1. When FIX specifies the valid values for an enum field, is it a violation of the protocol to use a value not defined in the spec.

When FIX defines a set of valid values for an enumeration and does not specify how user defined values can be accomodated, its implicit that user defined values are not permitted. As an example, Tag 35 Message Type defines standard values and also defines that custom message types can be defined as U*, so 35=U2^ is valid as my custom message type as per FIX specification (but I must make sure my counterparty(ies) support(s) it). But in your example Tag 581 AccountType does not specify a mechanism to define custom values.

Q2. Can FIX Engines support a custom (non-standard) value for an enum should it be choosen to define a custom value for use by bilateral agreement ?

My modifying the FIX repository being used by a FIX Engine, you would be able to use custom values, but make sure the counterparty is able to process it correctly, else you could be getting SLR for 581=9^ and they would be perfectly right because FIXProtocol does not define any semantics for this tag-value.

You could submit a Gap analysis ( http://www.fixprotocol.org/documents/2341/FIX%20Protocol%20Gap%20Analysis%20Proposal%20Template.zip ) to GTC explaining why a new enumeration value is needed for this tag and it could be added to the next service pack.

Regards,
K. Mahesh

Hi,

Many tags have a specified set of vaid values .
For example:

Tag 581 : AccountType
AbbrName: AcctTyp int Type of account associated with an order

Valid Values:
1 - Account is carried on customer side of the books
2 - Account is carried on non-customer side of books
3 - House Trader
4 - Floor Trader
6 - Account is carried on non-customer side of books and is cross margined
7 - Account is house trader and is cross margined
8 - Joint back office account (JBO)

Does this mean that we cannot use any other values for AccountType(say dealings acoount)
Do Fix vendors support this sort of customisation?

Thanks,
Jayashree