Symbol (FIX tag 55)

StringFIX 4.4FIX 4.2

Symbol (tag 55) is a String field defined in FIX 4.4 and FIX 4.2. It appears in 59 message types, always optionally.

At a glance

Tag: 55
Name: Symbol
Datatype: String
Dialects: FIX 4.4 and FIX 4.2
Messages: 59

What the specification says

FIX 4.4

Ticker symbol. Common, "human understood" representation of the security. SecurityID (48) value can be specified if no symbol exists (e.g. non-exchange traded Collective Investment Vehicles) Use "[N/A]" for products which do not have a symbol.

FIX 4.2

Ticker symbol

Descriptions are quoted from the FIX Orchestra sources under the Apache 2.0 licence.

A real message using tag 55

NewOrderSingle · FIX 4.4

Tag	Field	Wire value	Meaning
8	BeginString	FIX.4.4
9	BodyLength	122
35	MsgType	D	Order – Single
49	SenderCompID	BOARTEAM
56	TargetCompID	COUNTERPARTY
34	MsgSeqNum	2
52	SendingTime	20240101-12:00:00.000
11	ClOrdID	ORD-10042
55	Symbol	EUR/USD
54	Side	1	Buy
60	TransactTime	20240101-12:00:00.000
40	OrdType	1	Market
10	CheckSum	161

Edit and decode it yourself

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.

Open in the full decoder →

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.

Where tag 55 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 4.2	Where in the message
Advertisement	7	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
AllocationInstruction	J	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
AllocationReport	AS	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
AssignmentReport	AW	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
CollateralAssignment	AY	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
CollateralInquiry	BB	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
CollateralInquiryAck	BG	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
CollateralReport	BA	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
CollateralRequest	AX	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
CollateralResponse	AZ	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
Confirmation	AK	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
CrossOrderCancelReplaceRequest	t	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
CrossOrderCancelRequest	u	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
DerivativeSecurityList	AA	Optional	—	inside RelSymDerivSecGrp › Instrument
DontKnowTrade	Q	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
Email	C	Optional	—	inside InstrmtGrp › Instrument
ExecutionReport	8	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
IOI	6	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
ListStrikePrice	m	Optional	Required	inside InstrmtStrkPxGrp › Instrument
MarketDataIncrementalRefresh	X	Optional	Optional	inside MDIncGrp › Instrument
MarketDataRequest	V	Optional	Required	inside InstrmtMDReqGrp › Instrument
MarketDataSnapshotFullRefresh	W	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
MassQuote	i	Optional	Optional	inside QuotSetGrp › QuotEntryGrp › Instrument
MassQuoteAcknowledgement	b	Optional	Optional	inside QuotSetAckGrp › QuotEntryAckGrp › Instrument
MultilegOrderCancelReplace	AC	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
NewOrderCross	s	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
NewOrderList	E	Optional	Required	inside ListOrdGrp › Instrument
NewOrderMultileg	AB	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
NewOrderSingle	D	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
News	B	Optional	—	inside InstrmtGrp › Instrument
OrderCancelReplaceRequest	G	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
OrderCancelRequest	F	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
OrderMassCancelReport	r	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
OrderMassCancelRequest	q	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
OrderMassStatusRequest	AF	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
OrderStatusRequest	H	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
PositionMaintenanceReport	AM	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
PositionMaintenanceRequest	AL	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
PositionReport	AP	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
Quote	S	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
QuoteCancel	Z	Optional	Required	inside QuotCxlEntriesGrp › Instrument
QuoteRequest	R	Optional	Required	inside QuotReqGrp › Instrument
QuoteRequestReject	AG	Optional	—	inside QuotReqRjctGrp › Instrument
QuoteResponse	AJ	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
QuoteStatusReport	AI	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
QuoteStatusRequest	a	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
RFQRequest	AH	Optional	—	inside RFQReqGrp › Instrument
RequestForPositions	AN	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
RequestForPositionsAck	AO	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
SecurityDefinition	d	Optional	Optional	inside the Instrument component
SecurityDefinitionRequest	c	Optional	Optional	inside the Instrument component
SecurityList	y	Optional	—	inside SecListGrp › Instrument
SecurityListRequest	x	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
SecurityStatus	f	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
SecurityStatusRequest	e	Optional	Required	inside the Instrument component
TradeCaptureReport	AE	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
TradeCaptureReportAck	AR	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
TradeCaptureReportRequest	AD	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component
TradeCaptureReportRequestAck	AQ	Optional	—	inside the Instrument component

Wire format

Free-form text. Any byte except the SOH separator is legal, so values are not trimmed or case-folded on the wire. @boarteam/fix keeps the value as a string; format rules are checked by validate(), which reports validate/invalid-value rather than throwing.

Read tag 55 in TypeScript

decode.tsts

import { createFixEngine } from "@boarteam/fix";import { dictionary } from "@boarteam/fix-dict-fix44";const fix = createFixEngine(dictionary);const { message, issues } = fix.parse(raw);const field = message.fields[55];field?.name;   // "Symbol"field?.raw;    // the verbatim wire stringfield?.value;  // coerced to a string

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

Try the decoder Source on GitHub