Monday 12 November 2012

Sudden swoons are the fate of precious metal prices

The future casino

The futures volume traded exceeds the trade of physical products manifold. This often is the case for soft commodities, crude and non-ferro metals. Yet precious metals really trump all. Many on-line trading platforms don’t even allow any physical settlement, reducing a future contract to a bet on the future price. Describing a gold future transaction as "a promise to sell by a party who hasn't got the precious metal to a buyer who hasn't got the cash" is hardly exaggerating.