The LBMA Gold Price Explained: What "the Gold Fix" Is and Why Your Chart Doesn't Show It

Ask what the price of gold is and you can get three different answers in the same minute: the price on your trading platform, the price of a COMEX futures contract, and the LBMA Gold Price. They are all correct. They measure different things.

What is the LBMA Gold Price?

The LBMA Gold Price is the global benchmark price for gold, set twice each London business day in an electronic auction. It is administered by ICE Benchmark Administration and is still widely called "the gold fix", a name from the days when five banks agreed the price by phone.

• Times: 10:30 and 15:00 London time.
• Currency: set in US dollars per troy ounce, then published in other currencies.
• How: participants submit buy and sell orders in rounds; the price adjusts until buying and selling roughly balance.

Who uses it?

The benchmark is used where a single, verifiable price is needed:

• Central banks and refiners settling physical contracts.
• Gold ETFs valuing their holdings (many use the afternoon price).
• Jewellers, miners and lenders pricing supply contracts.
• Courts and auditors valuing gold holdings.

How is it different from the spot price on my platform?

Your platform shows a continuous, tradable bid and ask from your broker, updated many times a second, 23 hours a day. The LBMA price is a single number produced twice a day by an auction.

Most of the time the two are within a few dollars at the moment of the auction. Around the auction, liquidity in London can concentrate, which is one reason spreads are usually tight during London hours.

Does the fix matter for traders?

For a day trader, mostly as a time marker. The 15:00 London auction falls during the New York morning, when US data and the New York open are already moving the price. Some traders note the auction prices as reference levels, but there is no rule that the market respects them.

It matters more if you hold gold ETFs or trade products settled on the benchmark, because their value is calculated from it.

A short history

The London fix began in 1919 with five bullion houses meeting in person. It moved to a telephone call, and in 2015, after investigations into benchmark manipulation across markets, it was replaced by the current electronically auctioned, independently administered LBMA Gold Price.

Questions traders ask

Is the London fix the "real" price of gold? It is the reference price for contracts. The price you can trade at is the one your broker quotes.

Why does my broker's gold price differ from another broker's? Each broker sources prices from its own liquidity providers and adds its own spread. Differences of a few cents to a few dimes are normal. Larger gaps are worth asking about, and our broker rating records each broker's spread as it is tested.

What time is the gold fix in New York? 10:30 London is 5:30 a.m. New York and 15:00 London is 10:00 a.m. New York for most of the year. The gap shifts by an hour for a few weeks in spring and autumn when the US and UK change their clocks on different dates.