Gold Futures Price Today (COMEX GC)

Contract math for GC and micro gold (MGC)

A COMEX gold futures price is the price per troy ounce for gold delivered in a named month. One standard GC contract covers 100 troy ounces, so every $1 change in the quote is worth $100 per contract. The micro contract, MGC, is one-tenth that size, which makes the same price moves ten times smaller in dollars.

A worked profit and loss

1. A trader buys one GC contract at an example price of 3,000.00.
2. Gold rises to 3,012.50, a move of $12.50 per ounce.
3. That is 125 ticks of $0.10, and 125 × $10 = $1,250 gained before commissions and fees.
4. The same move in one MGC contract is worth $125.
5. Had gold fallen $12.50 instead, the loss would be exactly the same size.

Margin is a deposit, not a down payment

To hold a position you post a performance bond, usually called margin. CME Group sets minimum initial and maintenance levels and brokers can ask for more. The exchange changes those levels regularly and tends to raise them when volatility climbs. Because margin is a small fraction of the contract’s value, a price move equal to the margin deposit wipes it out; if an account falls below the maintenance level, the broker issues a margin call or closes the position.

Why that matters for the price

When many traders are forced out at once by margin calls, their selling feeds on itself. Several of gold’s sharpest one-day drops came partly from that mechanism rather than from new information about the metal.

Gold futures tickers and delivery months

The gold futures ticker is built from three parts: the root symbol, a month code and the year. GCZ26 is the December 2026 standard contract; MGCZ26 is the same month in micro size. Free quote sites often show GC=F, which means “the continuous front-month contract” rather than any single delivery month.

The other months use F (January), H (March), K (May), N (July), U (September) and X (November). Trading in gold concentrates in a handful of even-numbered months, and December is traditionally one of the most active.

Why front-month charts jump at the roll

A continuous chart switches from one contract to the next as the old one approaches delivery. Because the later contract carries more financing cost, it usually trades higher, so the chart can show a step that no trader actually earned. Charts labeled “back-adjusted” smooth this out; unadjusted ones do not.

Contango and the cost of carry

Futures normally trade above spot, a condition called contango. The gap reflects the cost of holding gold until delivery: roughly the interest rate for the period minus the rate at which gold can be lent out. When short-term U.S. rates were near zero in 2020 and 2021, the gap between spot and a contract several months out was small. With higher rates it widens, which is why futures prices a year out can sit noticeably above today’s spot price without implying any forecast.

The page on the gold spot price explains how spot is quoted and why retail prices build on it.

Notice days, delivery and the gold behind the contract

Very few gold futures end in delivery. Most positions are closed or rolled forward before the delivery period, and the ones that do deliver move ownership of bars already sitting in approved vaults.

What gets delivered

The seller delivers a warehouse receipt for gold held in a COMEX-approved depository in the New York area. A standard contract is satisfied by one bar of about 100 troy ounces or by three one-kilogram bars, with a minimum fineness of 995 parts per thousand, cast by a refiner on the exchange’s approved list. The buyer pays the full contract value and receives the receipt, and can leave the gold in the vault or arrange to withdraw it, paying storage and handling fees either way.

The delivery timeline in practice

• First notice day falls around the end of the month before the delivery month. From then on, anyone holding a long position can be assigned delivery.
• Speculators who do not want gold close or roll their positions before first notice, which is why volume shifts to the next active month days ahead.
• Sellers choose when during the delivery month to issue notices.
• Last trading day falls near the end of the delivery month; any position still open then must deliver or take delivery.

CME publishes the exact dates for each contract, and brokers often require retail clients to exit earlier still.

Weekend gold futures

CME gold futures do not trade on Saturdays. Quotes advertised as “weekend gold futures” come from offshore platforms or betting-style products, not from COMEX, and can differ from where Globex opens on Sunday evening. The gold market hours page lists the weekly schedule in each U.S. time zone.

Where the settlement price comes from

Each day’s official settlement, used to mark every open position, is calculated from trading shortly before 1:30 p.m. ET. It is the figure most news reports mean by gold’s “close,” covered in more detail on the gold closing price page.

How gold futures are taxed and what they cost to hold

Futures are taxed differently from physical gold and from gold ETFs, and the difference can be large for traders who hold for less than a year.

The 60/40 rule for Section 1256 contracts

Regulated futures contracts are Section 1256 contracts under the Internal Revenue Code. Gains and losses are split 60% long-term and 40% short-term regardless of how long the position was held, and open positions are marked to market at their year-end value as if sold on December 31. Traders report them on IRS Form 6781.

By contrast, a physically backed gold ETF is taxed as a collectible, with long-term gains capped at 28% and short-term gains taxed as ordinary income. The gold ETF guide explains that treatment.

Who uses gold futures

The CFTC splits futures traders into groups in its weekly Commitments of Traders report. Commercials include producers selling future output, refiners and jewelry makers locking in metal costs, and bullion banks hedging their inventory. Managed money covers hedge funds and commodity trading advisers, whose positions swing with trends and account for much of the short-term volatility. Smaller traders, including individuals using the micro contract, make up the rest. When managed money holds an unusually large net long position, a sharp drop can follow if those funds exit together.

The costs that add up

• Commissions and exchange fees on every round trip.
• The bid-ask spread, narrow in liquid hours and wider overnight.
• The roll cost: moving a position forward means selling the expiring contract and buying a later one that normally trades higher.
• Interest on cash that would otherwise earn a return, since margin ties up capital.

Futures price versus the price you see elsewhere

The gold price today shown across this site is a real-time spot price, so it usually sits a few dollars below the front-month COMEX futures price quoted on trading screens.

The page on XAU/USD compares spot and futures quotes side by side.