The API is Maker/Taker agnostic, meaning that Quote Requests, Quotes, Orders and Executions may flow either to or from the API client - entirely dependent on the Venue that the client is connected to.
The perspective of transaction sides is always from the perspective of the originator of the transaction, with Takers Buying and Selling against Makers Bids and Offers as follows:
Takers will always Buy or Sell their specified Dealt Currency - which is either
- Base - aka CCY1, LHS
- Terms - aka CCY2, RHS
Conversely, Makers will publish quotes as Bids and Offers against the Base of the quoted Ccy pair:
- The Bid price is the rate at which the Maker will buy the base currency.
- The Offer price is the rate at which the Maker will sell the base currency.
This is set out in tabular form below:
| Taker Trades | against Maker | |
|---|---|---|
| Base Ccy | Terms Ccy | |
| BUY | SELL | OFFER |
| SELL | BUY | BID |
In short, QuoteRequest, NewOrderMultileg and ExecutionReport all always express a transaction from the Taker perspective. Quotes always express prices from the Maker perspective.