ExerciseMethod (FIX tag 747)

charFIX 4.4FIX 5.0 SP2

ExerciseMethod (tag 747) is a char field defined in FIX 4.4 and FIX 5.0 SP2. It appears in 1 message type and is required in 1 of them. It is an enumerated field with 2 defined values.

At a glance

Tag: 747
Name: ExerciseMethod
Datatype: char
Dialects: FIX 4.4 and FIX 5.0 SP2
Messages: 1
Valid values: 2

What the specification says

FIX 4.4

Exercise Method used to in performing assignment

FIX 5.0 SP2

Exercise Method used to in performing assignment.

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

A real message using tag 747

AssignmentReport · FIX 4.4

Tag	Field	Wire value	Meaning
8	BeginString	FIX.4.4
9	BodyLength	171
35	MsgType	AW	Assignment Report
49	SenderCompID	BOARTEAM
56	TargetCompID	COUNTERPARTY
34	MsgSeqNum	2
52	SendingTime	20240101-12:00:00.000
833	AsgnRptID	EXAMPLE
581	AccountType	1	Account is carried on customer Side of Books
730	SettlPrice	1.09210
731	SettlPriceType	1	Final
732	UnderlyingSettlPrice	1.09210
744	AssignmentMethod	R	Random
746	OpenInterest	125000.00
747	ExerciseMethod	A	Automatic
716	SettlSessID	ITD	Intraday
717	SettlSessSubID	EXAMPLE
715	ClearingBusinessDate	20240101
10	CheckSum	157

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.

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
A	Automatic	AUTOMATIC
M	Manual	MANUAL

Where tag 747 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
AssignmentReport	AW	Required	Optional	directly on the message body

Wire format

A single character. Most char fields are enumerated, so the value is one of a fixed set rather than arbitrary text. @boarteam/fix keeps the value as a string and, for enumerated fields, reports validate/value-not-in-enum when it is not a defined value.

Read tag 747 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 exerciseMethod = message.fields[747]?.raw;// e.g. "A" — Automatic// The dictionary also carries the labels:const label = fix.dictionary  .fieldByTag(747)  ?.enumValues?.find((e) => e.value === exerciseMethod)  ?.description;

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