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 leading 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-forming market for gold and silver futures. Although it is a futures market, the worldwide spot price for gold and silver is largely oriented towards the contracts traded there. Each day, more troy ounces of gold are traded on paper at the COMEX than the entire global mine production of a whole year yields — which underlines the enormous significance of this market for price discovery.
History and context
The 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 via the electronic platform CME Globex, which enables almost seamless round-the-clock availability.
How COMEX futures work
A COMEX futures contract is a binding agreement to buy or sell a specified amount 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 settled before maturity (i.e. offset by a counter-contract) — physical delivery is the rare exception. Nevertheless, the right to physical delivery is decisive for tying the price to the real market.
COMEX price vs. spot price
The relationship between COMEX futures and the spot price can be represented, simplified, as follows:
Spot price ≈ nearest futures price − carrying costs (cost of carry)
The so-called "carrying costs" include storage fees, insurance and forgone interest on the tied-up capital. If the futures price lies above the spot price, this is called contango; if it lies below, backwardation.
Significance for retail investors
Although retail investors rarely trade directly on the COMEX, it influences every purchase:
- Price discovery: the gold price and silver price shown by dealers and banks derive directly from COMEX quotations.
- Paper gold vehicles: gold ETCs, certificates and unallocated accounts often draw their value from 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 briefly cause considerable price fluctuations without anything changing in physical supply.
Anyone buying physical precious metal or wishing to observe the current market can find up-to-date data on this site at any time; historical precious metal prices additionally give insight into how COMEX-driven price movements have developed over 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 linked: London dominates physical wholesale (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-metal futures market and thus a decisive driver of spot and dealer prices worldwide. Anyone buying or observing precious metals encounters COMEX prices daily — even without ever having entered into a futures contract.