I have a KITCO app on my smartphone and from time to time I check the price of gold to see how it is doing. Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium are always updated and they always give the closing price. But for the last couple of weeks or so, the price of Rhodium is always 685 bid, 785 ask. Just like today. It might change during the day but at the end of the day it is always the same price. I am not interested in Rhodium , I just want to know why the closing price is the same at the end of every day and all the other metal prices are reliable. Does anyone else use KITCO and know why ? Thanks
I emailed KITCO and got my answer today.......... Good day Raymond, Thank you for your email. Kitco appreciates your kind words and will continue to strive to provide the same level of quality service you have come to expect. The spread of $100 for Rhodium has been like this for a few years now, at least the last five for sure. The reason is because Rhodium prices do not move very often and when they do, the ‘change’ can be large. ---- Now, I wonder what constitutes a large change and what the average volume is for Rhodium. I am not interested in buying any, just trying to learn. I guess we won't ever know because most metal sales are private and it would be hard to track.
I don't trade Rhodium but have experience brokering other illiquid commodities. The price quoted is an "indicative" price which usually means it's the price they got last time they talked to a buyer and a seller. If you haven't done a deal or had an ocassion to talk to some buyers and sellers for a while, that number won't change. If you're one of the major players, and you haven't seen any action, that stale number is probably the most reliable number out there and you're not going to bug buyers and sellers every 2 hours to get updated prices if you don't have any deals for them. Even if you have current pricing, these are highly idiosyncratic deals and the actual price you get or pay can vary a lot based on things like the size of the deal, counterparty risk, what they happen to need at the time, delivery issues.....