FIX Protocol Tag 54: Side

Practical notes on Side

Side gives the direction of the order: 1 Buy, 2 Sell.

• Short sales use 5 (Sell short) or 6 (Sell short exempt). Many venues and regulators require these instead of 2 when the seller does not own the shares.
• Other codes cover crosses (8, 9) and, from FIX 4.4, fund subscriptions and redemptions (D, E) and securities lending (F, G).

Common mistakes

• Reporting a short sale as 2 (Sell), which can breach short-selling rules.

Tag 54 in each FIX version

Values and message usage as defined in a specific version.

• FIX 4.0
• FIX 4.1
• FIX 4.2
• FIX 4.3
• FIX 4.4
• FIX 5.0
• FIX 5.0 SP1
• FIX 5.0 SP2

Data type

CHAR: A single character.

Valid values

17 enumerated values across all FIX versions.

Example

54=1

Illustrative value. In a message, fields are separated by the SOH character (0x01), often shown as | or ^ in logs.

Message types that use tag 54

• IOI 35=6
• Execution Report 35=8
• New Order Single 35=D
• New Order List 35=E
• Order Cancel Request 35=F
• Order Cancel/Replace Request 35=G
• Order Status Request 35=H
• Allocation Instruction 35=J
• Dont Know Trade 35=Q
• Quote Request 35=R
• Quote 35=S
• Settlement Instructions 35=T
• New Order Multileg 35=AB
• Multileg Order Cancel/Replace 35=AC
• Trade Capture Report Request 35=AD
• Trade Capture Report 35=AE
• Order Mass Status Request 35=AF
• Quote Request Reject 35=AG
• Quote Status Report 35=AI
• Quote Response 35=AJ
• Confirmation 35=AK
• Trade Capture Report Ack 35=AR
• Allocation Report 35=AS
• Settlement Instruction Request 35=AV
• Collateral Request 35=AX
• Collateral Assignment 35=AY
• Collateral Response 35=AZ
• Collateral Report 35=BA
• Collateral Inquiry 35=BB
• Allocation Instruction Alert 35=BM
• Execution Ack 35=BN
• Order Mass Action Report 35=BZ
• Order Mass Action Request 35=CA
• Trade Match Report 35=DC
• Party Risk Limit Check Request 35=DF
• Party Risk Limit Check Request Ack 35=DG
• Mass Order 35=DJ
• Mass Order Ack 35=DK
• Market Data Statistics Request 35=DO
• Market Data Statistics Report 35=DP
• Trade Aggregation Request 35=DW
• Trade Aggregation Report 35=DX
• Quote Status Request 35=a
• Security Definition Request 35=c
• Security Definition 35=d
• Bid Request 35=k
• Bid Response 35=l
• List Strike Price 35=m
• Order Mass Cancel Request 35=q
• Order Mass Cancel Report 35=r
• New Order Cross 35=s
• Cross Order Cancel Replace Request 35=t
• Cross Order Cancel Request 35=u

Covers every version from FIX 4.0 to 5.0 SP2, including fields reached through components and repeating groups. The version pages above show whether the tag is required in each message.