Hi im new to gold futures, I currently only trade index futures. Some questions, 1 in what quantity is gold traded, now is currently about 913/ ounce so is gold traded in 1 ounceX 1000? 2.is spot gold bought and sold like a stock? is it cheaper that gold futures? 3.is contango currently priced in the gold market? 4. in nymex light sweet crude a $1 increase is 1000 in a 1000 barrel contract. how's the leveradge like in gold futures? 5. What durations of the contract to expiray exist? monthly, 36 months in crude exist, please tell me all the durations from short( onthy) mid term a few months to long term years 6. is gold priced in USD only? So if I buy in SGD, it is just converted according to the exchange rate? but inflation lowers the US to singapore dollar rate, doesn;t this negate the effect of me buying gold in Singapore dollars?
Most of your answers can be found here http://www.nymex.com/GC_spec.aspx Use the links on the left hand side. The Tokyo commodity exchange also trades gold denominated in yen, but I don't know much about that one.
just one question I don't understand from nymex, the long contracts, short contracts and mid term contracts can somone translate for me? i mean like tell me the various contract duration to expirary.
There is very little voulme on any contract other than the front month. Right now that is the August contract. At the end of July everyone will switch to trading December contracts. Ignore October, everyone does so there is no volume. Right now the premium on December contracts is unusually low (around $2.50) and there has been slight backwardation in the August contracts. FWIW.
I don't trade options very often so I am not a good person to ask. I mostly scalp and daytrade gold futures based on S/R, price action.
gold is dead money people would rather have yen and 5 yr note over it at the moment heck even suisse and euro gold ( and silver ) will shine again but for now its orange juice's day in the sun www.space.com/amazingimages/images/sunspot_wm_cte.jpg
That is why I trade gold, rather than invest in it. Although I think this could be an interesting Fall and Winter coming up.
Gold futures options are not very liquid, but if you decide to trade it, check out Options Lab at http://www.TheOptionsLab.com to try all kinds of Options strategies.
I trade GCZ9 (dec ones for a while). Now, Jan(GCH0) is the front month. But what happened to all the liquidity? It's so freaking thin! So, what is the most liquid gold futures contract out there? I can't believe institutions are piling in GC given how thin it is. Bid/ask as small as single digits at time. Weird. I tried 8Q(mini-gold) and that's even worst. THe spread is so wide. What's out there that's big and thick. Thanks,