Scope (FIX tag 546)
Scope (tag 546) is a MultipleValueString field defined in FIX 4.4 and FIX 5.0 SP2. It appears in 3 message types, always optionally. It is an enumerated field with 3 defined values.
At a glance
- Tag
- 546
- Name
- Scope
- Datatype
- MultipleValueString (String)
- Dialects
- FIX 4.4 and FIX 5.0 SP2
- Messages
- 3
- Valid values
- 3
What the specification says
FIX 4.4
Defines the scope of a data element
FIX 5.0 SP2
Specifies the market scope of the market data.
Descriptions are quoted from the FIX Orchestra sources under the Apache 2.0 licence.
A real message using tag 546
| Tag | Field | Wire value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | BeginString | FIX.4.4 | |
| 9 | BodyLength | 93 | |
| 35 | MsgType | W | Market Data-Snapshot/Full Refresh |
| 49 | SenderCompID | BOARTEAM | |
| 56 | TargetCompID | COUNTERPARTY | |
| 34 | MsgSeqNum | 2 | |
| 52 | SendingTime | 20240101-12:00:00.000 | |
| 268 | NoMDEntries2 entries | 2 | repeating group |
| 269 | MDEntryType | 0 | Bid |
| 546 | Scope | 1 | Local (Exchange, ECN, ATS) |
| 269 | MDEntryType | 0 | Bid |
| 546 | Scope | 1 | Local (Exchange, ECN, ATS) |
| 10 | CheckSum | 034 |
Shown with | separators for readability. On the wire FIX uses SOH (0x01), an invisible control byte — and because BodyLength and CheckSum are computed over the actual bytes, the two forms have different checksums. Both are valid and both decode here.
Generated from the FIX 4.4 dictionary and verified at build time: it parses and validates with no issues. Open the decoder to try your own message.
Valid values
A value outside this list is not a parse error — the message still decodes — but validate() reports it as validate/value-not-in-enum.
| Value | Meaning | Symbolic name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Local (Exchange, ECN, ATS) | LOCAL / LOCAL_MARKET |
| 2 | National | NATIONAL |
| 3 | Global | GLOBAL |
Where tag 546 appears
Requiredness is a property of the message, not of the field: the same tag can be optional in one message and conditionally required in another.
| Message | MsgType | FIX 4.4 | FIX 5.0 SP2 | Where in the message |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MarketDataIncrementalRefresh | X | Optional | Optional | inside the MDIncGrp component |
| MarketDataRequest | V | Optional | Optional | directly on the message body |
| MarketDataSnapshotFullRefresh | W | Optional | Optional | inside the MDFullGrp component |
Wire format
Several values in one field, separated by spaces. Decoders return an array. @boarteam/fix splits the value on its delimiter and returns an array of strings.
Read tag 546 in TypeScript
import { createFixEngine } from "@boarteam/fix";import { dictionary } from "@boarteam/fix-dict-fix44";const fix = createFixEngine(dictionary);const { message, issues } = fix.parse(raw);const scope = message.fields[546]?.raw;// e.g. "1" — Local (Exchange, ECN, ATS)// The dictionary also carries the labels:const label = fix.dictionary .fieldByTag(546) ?.enumValues?.find((e) => e.value === scope) ?.description;Other MultipleValueString fields
Decode this in your own code
The same engine that produced the decoded example above is an Apache-2.0 npm package with zero runtime dependencies. It runs in Node and in the browser, and parse() returns problems as data instead of throwing.
npm i @boarteam/fix @boarteam/fix-dict-fix44