Learn about Gold Futures
Gold futures, ticker symbol GC, are among the most widely traded futures products worldwide. Although Gold futures are contracts for physically-deliverable commodities, these products are also critical tools for diversifying portfolios and mitigating risk. Traditionally, gold has been seen as a “safe haven” in times of global economic or political uncertainty, and as such, prices may often move inverse to the U.S. dollar, treasury bonds, and U.S. stock indexes.
The Contract
Each COMEX Gold futures contract represents 100 troy ounces of deliverable gold, with a minimum tick price of $10.00. The E-micro Gold futures contract, symbol MGC, represents 10 troy ounces of gold and trades at a minimum tick price of $1.00. The contracts trade electronically nearly around the clock, six days a week, and traders can leverage substantial margin efficiencies when gaining exposure to this liquid market.
Trading the Contract
Market participants actively trading Gold futures must pay attention to numerous macro factors, both economic and political. U.S. economic and monetary policy, as well as the overall health of the U.S. economy, can heavily impact gold prices, so traders leveraging gold must pay close attention data points such as FOMC statements, inflationary indicators like CPI and PPI, and non-farm payrolls numbers.
Since gold is also used as a hedge for non-U.S. economies, traders must also be highly attuned to issues of political and economic stability worldwide, especially in China, Japan, the Middle East and the Eurozone.
