Like all physical commodities, the ‘price’ of gold must take into account the when and where delivery is required. The price of a contract to deliver 1000 ounces of gold tomorrow will be different to the price to deliver it in a month, or two months.
For example COMEX (part of the CME Group formed from the merger of CME/CBOT/NYMEX) gold futures for October delivery are traded on contracts labelled ‘GCV09′ so you can see gold prices by going to the CME Gold Futures site or the NYMEX Gold Futures site. Or use the Yahoo site.
Charts that show the ‘gold price’ over a period of several years, can use data for the nearest delivery date to plot the price, eg “GC.1″ Comex Gold.
Some trackers (ETFs) that mirror the gold price follow the spot price, ie price for “immediate” delivery (ie within 48 hours). Very often the immediate delivery price is slightly lower than say the one month delivery price, a situation called contango.
The Price Of Gold
Gold Futures Contracts
Like all physical commodities, the ‘price’ of gold must take into account the when and where delivery is required. The price of a contract to deliver 1000 ounces of gold tomorrow will be different to the price to deliver it in a month, or two months.
For example COMEX (part of the CME Group formed from the merger of CME/CBOT/NYMEX) gold futures for October delivery are traded on contracts labelled ‘GCV09′ so you can see gold prices by going to the CME Gold Futures site or the NYMEX Gold Futures site. Or use the Yahoo site.
Charts that show the ‘gold price’ over a period of several years, can use data for the nearest delivery date to plot the price, eg “GC.1″ Comex Gold.
Here is an example, from TradersLog.
Some trackers (ETFs) that mirror the gold price follow the spot price, ie price for “immediate” delivery (ie within 48 hours). Very often the immediate delivery price is slightly lower than say the one month delivery price, a situation called contango.
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