In Bloomberg API how do you specify to get FX forwards as a spread rather than absolute values?

Question

How do you explicitly request fx forwards as outrights using the bloomberg API?

In the Bloomberg terminal you can choose whether to get FX Forwards as absolute rates

Answer 1

Having had a colleague told by the help desk this is impossible, it turns out they are wrong and it is possible. You override the FWD_CURVE_QUOTE_FORMAT to be RATES for absolute and POINTS as offsets.

Example code (Java):

public static void main(String [] args) throws Exception{
  Session session = BlpUtil.connectToReferenceData();
  Service refDataService = session.getService("//blp/refdata");
  Request request = refDataService.createRequest("HistoricalDataRequest");

  Element securities = request.getElement("securities");
  securities.appendValue("JPY10Y CMPL Curncy");

  Element fields = request.getElement("fields");
  fields.appendValue("PX_LAST");

  request.set("startDate", "20100527");
  request.set("endDate", "20100527");

  Element overrides = request.getElement("overrides");
  Element override1 = overrides.appendElement();
  override1.setElement("fieldId", "FWD_CURVE_QUOTE_FORMAT");
  override1.setElement("value", "POINTS");

  CorrelationID cid = session.sendRequest(request, null);
  while (true) {
    Event event = session.nextEvent();
    MessageIterator msgIter = event.messageIterator();
    while (msgIter.hasNext()) {
      Message msg = msgIter.next();
      if (msg.correlationID() == cid) {
        System.out.println("msg = " + msg);
      }
    }
  }
}