COMEX
Also: Commodity Exchange, NYMEX COMEX
The COMEX (Commodity Exchange) is the world's most important futures exchange for gold and silver futures and the key price reference market for physical precious metals.
The COMEX (Commodity Exchange) is a division of the CME Group in New York and is regarded as the most important price-discovery market for gold and silver futures. Although it is a futures market, the global spot price for gold and silver is significantly driven by the contracts traded there. Every day, more troy ounces of gold are traded on paper at the COMEX than the entire global mine production of a full year — which underlines the enormous importance of this market for price formation.
History and context
The COMEX was founded in New York in 1933 and merged with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) in 1994. In 2008, the CME Group acquired both exchanges. Today, trading runs through the electronic CME Globex platform, which enables an almost uninterrupted round-the-clock availability.
How COMEX futures work
A COMEX futures contract is a binding agreement to buy or sell a specified quantity of precious metal at a price fixed today at a future delivery date. The standard contract sizes are:
| Metal | Contract size | Deliverable fineness |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | 100 troy ounces | min. 995/1000 |
| Silver | 5,000 troy ounces | min. 999/1000 |
| Copper | 25,000 pounds | Electrolytic copper |
In practice, over 99% of all contracts are closed out before maturity (i.e. offset by a counter-contract) — physical delivery is the rare exception. Nevertheless, the right to take physical delivery is crucial for anchoring prices to the real market.
COMEX price vs. spot price
The relationship between COMEX futures and the spot price can be simplified as follows:
Spot price ≈ Nearest futures price − cost of carry
The so-called "cost of carry" includes storage fees, insurance and foregone interest on the capital employed. If the futures price is above the spot price, this is called contango; if it is below, it is called backwardation.
Significance for private investors
Although private investors rarely trade directly on the COMEX, it influences every purchase:
- Price discovery: The gold price and silver price quoted by dealers and banks are derived directly from COMEX quotations.
- Paper gold vehicles: Gold ETCs, certificates and unallocated accounts often derive their value via COMEX prices.
- Arbitrage coupling: Large dealers use arbitrage to keep physical wholesale prices and COMEX prices close together.
- Volatility: Position changes by large speculators (so-called "managed money") can generate significant short-term price swings without any change in physical supply.
Those who buy physical precious metals or want to monitor the current market situation will always find up-to-date data on this site: historical precious metal prices also provide insight into how COMEX-driven price movements have developed over the years.
COMEX and the LBMA fixing
Alongside the COMEX, the LBMA Fixing provides a second global price reference point, determined daily in London by auction. Both markets are closely interconnected: London dominates physical wholesale trade (bars, refinery settlement), while New York leads the futures market. International banks and dealers always use both references for their hedging transactions.
In brief
The COMEX is the heart of the global precious metals futures market and thus the key driver of spot and dealer prices worldwide. Anyone who buys or monitors precious metals encounters COMEX prices daily — even without ever having entered into a futures contract.