Gold Market Trading Prices

Two of the best important gold trading centers are in London and New York. The London gold bazaar is one of the oldest in the apple and is the better bazaar for concrete gold. Since September 12, 1919, the London gold fix has been the gold amount accepted acclimated in arrangement arrange about the world. Today, the gold constituent booty abode at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., accouterment the official gold amount acclimated by producers, consumers and axial banks.

The above gold futures barter for U.S. traders is the Comex analysis of the New York Mercantile Barter (NYMEX), which began trading gold futures on Dec. 31, 1974, on the aboriginal day U.S. citizens were accustomed to own gold afterwards a ban of added than 40 years. Other important gold markets are amid in Tokyo, Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghei, Singapore, Dubai and Zurich. So at any time of the day or night a accepted gold amount is actuality accustomed somewhere.

Gold is one of those markets that accommodate a advanced ambit of applicable advance cartage for about any blazon of investor. In accession to the concrete gold itself in the anatomy of gold banknote or gold coins, investors can accurate their opinions about the angle for gold prices in gold futures and options, stocks of companies complex in metals and mining including the gold mining penny stocks and gold exchange-traded funds.

While prices for many physical commodities tend to revolve around supply-demand data, gold needs to be treated more like a financial market that responds to fear and anxiety. Gold prices typically move higher in times of crisis and panic. A stock market crash, an unexpected war or terror attacks can lead to a buying frenzy in gold because traders view it as a safe haven and preferable to own instead of paper assets.

Gold prices usually move higher during periods of high inflation, which tend to bring on higher interest rates. Gold futures prices also have an inverse relationship with the price of the U.S. dollar, because gold and other key commodities like oil are priced in dollars. If the value of the dollar declines over time, the price of gold should rise.

The main participants in the physical market
The main world markets for physical gold are in London and Zurich, and London is pre-eminent.

London
London grew to dominate the gold market at a time when gold essentially was money. Significant finds in the Urals (Russia) had boosted global gold production in the 18th Century, and then industrialised production took off with the Californian gold discoveries.

The mid 19th century was the time of London's domination of global commerce and finance, and as the source of capital for gold mining, and because of the gold standard of the British Pound, London became the hub of bullion trading. It still holds that position, probably thanks to a curious mix of flexibility, commercial freedom and historical chance, including the good fortune to have South Africa as a colony at the time of the largest finds ever - around 1900.

Zurich
By the end of the 1960s western governments had for a long time been operating the gold market in an artificial way with a view to maintaining the fixed exchange rates of the Bretton Woods system. (Click here for a review of the post WW2 history of global exchange rate management and the use of the gold market).

Link : Gold : Prices, Facts, Figures & Research