Who sets the price of gold?

[FreeEnergy]

In light of the Gaillo's thread about tax-free living, and since this is a gold forum, I'd like to see if someone can provide IRONCLAD info: List of actual people who set the price of gold in London.

I want actual people with links. If we can't do that, let's start with banks and do a little digging, is this not the best forum on gold info?...

I want to see if Book's guess of them being 3 rabbis holds water ;D

[Saul Mine]

Nope, no links. The London fix is set by a bunch of dealers who meet twice a day to set a price at which they would settle all their accounts at that moment. It's reliable because they are talking with their own money. What we call spot is set by some unknown person who acts on his own counsel and don't take no sass from nobody.

[Book]

In light of the Gaillo's thread about tax-free living, and since this is a gold forum, I'd like to see if someone can provide IRONCLAD info: List of actual people who set the price of gold in London.



The current five participants in the fixing, who must be members of the London Bullion Market Association, are:

* Scotia-Mocatta — successor to Mocatta & Goldsmid and part of Bank of Nova Scotia
* Barclays Capital — Replaced N M Rothschild & Sons when they abdicated
* Deutsche Bank — Owner of Sharps Pixley, itself the merger of Sharps Wilkins with Pixley & Abell
* HSBC — Owner of Samuel Montagu & Co.
* Société Générale — Replaced Johnson Matthey and CSFB as fifth seat

Linky for FreeEnergy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_fixing)

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http://www.collive.com/pics/s_nf_4419_213742.jpg

[FreeEnergy]

Book, good stuff.

Samuel Montagu "british" banker:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/1st_Baron_Swaythling.png/150px-1st_Baron_Swaythling.png

But what about Barclays, Deutsche bank, HSBC and Societe Generale? These are probably royalty banks.

I still want names. It is not very likely that people intimately involved in gold would believe that "some unknown entity banks get together and set the price". People get together, some unknown entity dictates. Let's dig some names, folks.

[Skirnir]

The spot market sets the price, the London Fix is only for settlement among the participants and their clients.

[1970 silver art]

Actually I thought I was the one that set the price of gold but I got a rude awakening when I tried to mentally command the price of gold to jump to $1300 today. It was an epic fail. The price of Gold just spat in my face and ended up finishing at $1165-ish. Oh well...........I tried. :'(

[TheNocturnalEgyptian]

The reason it's called "spot" is because the bank of london will buy up any given amount of gold, on that day, for that amount. It's not a set price of gold, it's more like a floor. If somebody goes below the floor of "spot", you can simply sell to the bank of london for that higher amount. In that capacity, the bank of london "sets" the price of gold because you have to be willing to lose potential profit on a transaction if you choose to buy/sell below spot price.

[Book]

The London fix is set by a bunch of dealers who meet twice a day to set a price at which they would settle all their accounts at that moment. It's reliable because they are talking with their own money.



Good question is to wonder why Kitco price jumps up and down by the minute.

:)

[Skirnir]

The reason it's called "spot" is because the bank of london will buy up any given amount of gold, on that day, for that amount. It's not a set price of gold, it's more like a floor. If somebody goes below the floor of "spot", you can simply sell to the bank of london for that higher amount. In that capacity, the bank of london "sets" the price of gold because you have to be willing to lose potential profit on a transaction if you choose to buy/sell below spot price.


http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/spotprice.asp

What Does Spot Price Mean?
The current price at which a particular commodity can be bought or sold at a specified time and place.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/spot-price.html

Price of goods traded on a spot market and available for almost immediate delivery. Also called cash price.