Gold is a liquid asset, ranking at levels comparable to many global stock markets as well as currency spreads. Its liquidity is often sourced during periods of stress in the markets, one of its appealing qualities. We examine liquidity across the global OTC, futures, and ETF markets. We then provide an overview/ aggregation of gold trading volumes across trading venues and product types.
Data Series Description
Volumes represent estimated daily averages in billions of US dollars (US$bn) over each corresponding period. For information, see Methodology.
LBMA volumes based on the weekly report by the LBMA https://www.lbma.org.uk/prices-and-data/lbma-daily-trade-reporting-data
Non-LBMA data corresponds to estimated over-the-counter (OTC)trading volumes not captured by the reported LBMA Trade Data. This figure is intended to account for OTC trading by non-LBMA members or by platforms not included in the report. Based on analysis of indirect data and anecdotal evidence, we estimate that starting from March 2024, non-LBMA trading may contribute an additional 2.5% to 7.5% of the volume reported by LBMA, with a mid-value of 5% represented in the non-LBMA calculation in the table. Between November 2018 and February 2024 we use a multiplier ranging from 5% (low) to 15% (high), with a mid-value of 10% of the corresponding total LBMA volume to account for a larger number of non-LBMA members. Note that these estimates are subject to periodical historical revisions as more data becomes available. For a historical reference on this data series, please see: Market Update: increased transparency on gold trading
Shanghai Gold Exchange OTC trade data includes trading volumes of all gold spot contracts, forwards, swaps, leasing contracts and gold options traded on the exchange’s OTC market. They include PAu9999, PAu9995, iPAu9999, iPAu995, OAu9999, LAu9995 and LAu9999. Note that only contracts with active trading volumes in 2021 are included and we divide all SGE contracts’ volumes by two as the report includes double-side-counted data. This data is reported monthly with a lag, usually between three and 13 days after the end of the month. For more information, see: trading_OTCMarket (sge.com.cn)
Shanghai Futures Exchange started to report one-side-counted trading volumes from 1 January 2020. For data prior to this date, we divide the exchange’s trading volumes by two to account for the reporting of both purchases and sales of each contract.
Shanghai Gold Exchange physical exchange-traded gold contracts include Au9999, Au9995, Au995, Au100g, PGC30g, Shanghai Benchmark Gold Price contract (SHAU), iAu9999 and iAu100g, deferred exchange-traded gold contracts include Au(T+D), mAu(T+D), Au(T+N1), Au(T+N2), NYAuTN06 and NYAuTN12. Note that only contracts with active trading volumes in 2021 are included and we divide all SGE contracts’ volumes by two as the report includes double-side-counted data. Also note that volumes of SHAU are only available in the monthly report from the SGE and we manually update this series once it is available. For more information, see: data_MonthlyReport (sge.com.cn)
All other exchanges include gold contracts traded on: Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange, Borsa Istanbul, Bursa Malaysia, Multi Commodity Exchange of India, Moscow Exchange – RTSX (pre-21 June 2024 due to data availability), Thailand Futures Exchange, Osaka Exchange (TOCOM pre-July 2020) and Korea Exchange.
Gold ETFs volumes are estimated using a subset of the universe of physically-backed gold ETFs (and similar products) that we monitor, and for which volumes data is readily available. For more information on gold ETFs, see: https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/gold-etfs-holdings-and-flows
Length and frequency
Data covers the last full year, year-to-date and the last four full months.
Update Schedule
Data is published monthly but may be updated intra-month as data becomes available.
Units
Units are based on billions of US dollars (US$bn).
