Gold Fixing
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The Gold Fixing or Gold Fix is the procedure by which the price of gold is set on the London market by the five members of the London gold pool. It is designed to fix a price for settling contracts between members of the London bullion market, but informally the Gold Fixing provides a recognised rate that is used as a benchmark for pricing the majority of gold products and derivatives throughout the world's markets.
The first fixing took place on 12 September 1919 amongst the five principal gold bullion traders and refiners of the day: N.M. Rothschild and Sons, Mocatta & Goldsmid, Pixley & Abell, Samuel Montagu & Co. and Sharps Wilkins. The gold price then was four pounds 18 shillings and ninepence (GBP 4.9375) per troy ounce.
Due to wartime emergencies and government controls, the London Gold Fixing was suspended between 1939 and 1954.
On 21 January 1980 the Gold Fixing reached its highest ever price of USD 850.
The Fixing historically took place twice daily at the City offices of N.M. Rothschild and Sons in St Swithin's Lane, but since 5 May 2004 it takes place by telephone. In April 2004 N M Rothschild & Sons announced that it planned to withdraw from gold trading and from the London Gold Fixing. Barclays Bank took its place from 7 June 2004, and the chairmanship of the meeting, formerly held permanently by Rothschilds, now rotates annually.
A tradition of the London Gold Fixing was that participants could raise a small Union Jack flag on their desk to pause proceedings. Under the telephone fixing system, participants can register a pause by saying the word "flag", and the chair ends the meeting with the phrase "There are no flags, and we're fixed".
The current five participants in the Fixing, who must be members of the London Bullion Market Association, are:
- Bank of Nova Scotia - ScotiaMocatta
- Barclays Bank
- Deutsche Bank
- HSBC
- Société Générale
Related articles
External links
- N. M. Rothschild and Sons (http://www.rothschild.com/home/)