Live Spot Prices

The gold futures market is one of a number of commodity futures, wherein contracts are entered into, agreeing to buy or sell gold at a certain price at a specified future date. Gold futures are used both as a way for gold producers and market makers to hedge their products against fluctuations in the market, and as a way for speculators to make money off of those same movements in the market.

A precious metals futures contract is a legally binding agreement for delivery of a metal in the future at an agreed-upon price. The contracts are standardized by a futures exchange as to quantity, quality, time and place of delivery. Only the price is variable.

Hedgers use these contracts as a way to manage their price risk on an expected purchase or sale of the physical metal. They also provide speculators with an opportunity to participate in the markets by lodging exchange required margin.

There are two different positions that can be taken: A long (buy) position is an obligation to accept delivery of the physical metal, while a short (sell) position is the obligation to make delivery. The great majority of futures contracts are offset prior to the delivery date. For example, this occurs when an investor with a long position sells that position prior to delivery notice.

The spot gold price refers to the price of gold for immediate delivery. Transactions for bullion coins are almost always priced using the spot price as a basis. The spot gold market is trading very close to 24 hours a day as there is almost always a location somewhere in the world that is actively taking orders for gold transactions. New York, London, Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Zurich are where most of the trading activity takes place. Whenever bullion dealers in any of these cities are active, we indicate this on our website with the message “Spot Market is Open”. For the high and low values, we are showing the lowest bid and the highest ask of the day.

The spot price is the current price in the marketplace at which a given asset - such as a security, commodity, or currency - can be bought or sold for immediate delivery. While spot prices are specific to both time and place, in a global economy the spot price of most securities or commodities tends to be fairly uniform worldwide when accounting for exchange rate.

This is a classification of specific metals that are considered rare and have a higher economic value compared to other metals. There are five main precious metals openly traded on various exchanges, gold is the biggest market. Gold is sometimes referred to as monetary metals as it has historical uses as a currency and is seen as a store of value. While relatively small, gold does also have an industrial component because it is less reactive, a good conductor, highly malleable and doesn’t corrode.

 Because gold is visually pleasing and workable and does not tarnish or corrode, it was one of the first metals to attract human attention. Because of its unique qualities, gold has been the one material that is universally accepted in exchange for goods and services. In the form of coins or bullion, gold has occasionally played a major role as a high-denomination currency, although silver was generally the standard medium of payments in the world’s trading systems.