COMEX
Also: Commodity Exchange, NYMEX COMEX
COMEX (Commodity Exchange) is the world's most significant futures exchange for gold and silver futures and the decisive price-reference market for physical precious metals.
COMEX (Commodity Exchange) is a division of the CME Group in New York and is regarded as the most important price-formation market for gold and silver futures. Although it is a futures market, the worldwide spot price for gold and silver is decisively guided by the contracts traded there. Every day, more troy ounces of gold are traded on paper at COMEX than global mine production yields in an entire year — which underlines the enormous importance of this market for price discovery.
History and context
COMEX was founded in New York in 1933 and merged in 1994 with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). In 2008 the CME Group acquired both exchanges. Today, trading runs over the electronic CME Globex platform, which allows almost seamless round-the-clock availability.
How COMEX futures work
A COMEX futures contract is a binding agreement to buy or sell a fixed quantity of precious metal at a price fixed today for 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. cancelled by an offsetting contract) — physical delivery is the rare exception. Nevertheless, the right to physical delivery is decisive for the price link 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" comprises storage fees, insurance and forgone interest on the capital tied up. If the futures price is above the spot price, this is called contango; if it is below, backwardation.
Significance for private investors
Although private investors rarely trade directly on COMEX, it influences every purchase:
- Price discovery: the gold price and the silver price quoted by dealers and banks derive directly from COMEX quotations.
- Paper-gold vehicles: gold ETCs, certificates and unallocated accounts often derive their value via COMEX prices.
- Arbitrage coupling: large dealers ensure through arbitrage that physical wholesale prices and COMEX prices stay close together.
- Volatility: position changes by large speculators (so-called "managed money") can generate considerable short-term price swings without anything having changed in physical supply.
Anyone who buys physical precious metal or wants to observe the current market state will always find up-to-date data on this site: historical precious-metal prices also give an insight into how COMEX-driven price movements have developed over years.
COMEX and the LBMA fixing
Alongside COMEX, the LBMA fixing provides a second global price-reference point, determined daily in London by auction. Both markets are closely linked: London dominates the 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
COMEX is the heart of the global precious-metals futures market and thus the decisive driver of spot and dealer prices worldwide. Anyone who buys or observes precious metals encounters COMEX prices daily — even without ever having concluded a futures contract.