Gold & Metal FAQs

Spot metal prices are priced per Troy Ounce. 

• 1 Troy ounce is equal to 1.0971428 ounces avoirdupois
• 1 Troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams
• 1 ounce = 28.3495231 grams
• 1 Troy ounce contains 2.75 grams more of metal than the standard ounce

Yes, you can integrate the XigniteMetals web service into your eCommerce Shopping Cart.
Many Xignite clients who operate in the precious metal industry use XigniteMetals to price their transactions based on up-to-date an accurate metal prices.
The APIs you can to integrate with your shopping cart are:

• GetLastRealTimeMetalQuote for spot metal prices.
• GetLastLondonFixing for precious metal fixings.

Historical pricing availability varies by metal and currency:

For US Dollar (USD) the availability is the following:

• Gold and Silver: 1/1/1990 to present
• Platinum: 1/2/2004 to present
• Palladium: 1/13/2004 to present

For alternate currencies, the availability varies.

Precious metals are traded over-the-counter (OTC) and therefore are not subject to any "official" trading times.
The time at which precious metal spot prices are available therefore correspond to the time during which various trading desks (banks, brokers, trading platforms, etc.) operate around the world.
Since the markets are worldwide, spot precious metals are traded almost round the clock.

The availability of Spot Metal Prices is Sundays 6:00 PM EST (market opening in Tokyo) to Fridays 4:30 PM EST (market close in New York). Unavailable Monday to Thursday 5:15 PM to 6:00 PM EST (All markets closed).

Metals use a symbology tied to their currency code which is itself linked to their code in the periodic table of elements.

• Gold: XAU - Where AU is the code for gold (from the Latin Aurum) 
• Silver: XAG - Where AG is the code for silver (from the Latin Argentum).
• Platinum: XPT - Where PT is the code for Platinum.
• Palladium: XPD - Where PD is the code for Palladium.

Since metals are considered currencies. The symbol of a gold price in US dollars would be XAUUSD.
XigniteMetals APIs allow you to pull metal prices without having to use specific symbols. Instead you can specify the metal and currency you are wanting a quote for.

XigniteMetals provides precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, palladium) prices in Troy Ounces.   

Troy Ounces is the global and traditional unit of weight used for precious metals, which was attributed to a weight used in Troyes, France, in medieval times.

• 1 Troy ounce is equal to 1.0971428 ounces avoirdupois
• 1 Troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams
• 1 ounce = 28.3495231 grams
• 1 Troy ounce contains 2.75 grams more of metal than the standard ounce

The available time for fixings depend on the metal. 
Silver updates once daily while other metals update twice daily.

The publication times for each metal are:

• Gold: Available twice a day at 10:30 AM GMT and 3:00 PM GMT
• Silver Available once a day at 12:00 PM GMT
• Platinum: Available twice a day at 9:45 AM GMT and 2:00 PM GMT
• Palladium: Available twice a day at 9:45 AM GMT and 2:00 PM GMT

The source of our precious metal prices depend on the type of price:

Spot Prices

Contributors

Here are some examples of contributors to the Morningstar and SFI feeds:

• Morningstar: UBS, Saxo Bank, CommerzBank, etc.
• SFI: Swiss National Bank, Deutsch Bundesbank, People's Bank of China, etc.

Future Prices

Xignite collects future pricing information from the CME Group via feed. Xignite calculates delayed future prices and historical future prices from this feed.

Exchange Fees

CME Delayed Future prices are subject to exchange fees. The fees are $187.50/mo for either NYMEX or COMEX. Xignite collects and pays the fees back to CME as part of the exchange reporting process. Xignite charges a $12.50 processing fee on top of the CME fees.

Fixings

• Gold & Silver: London Bullion Metal Association
• Platinum & Palladium: London Platinum and Palladium Association

The Gold Fixings are set by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA).
The five members organizations that are involved in the determination of the gold fixings are:

• Barclays Capital
• Scotia-Mocatta
• Société Générale
• HSBC Bank USA
• Deutsche Bank AG

The Silver Fixings are set by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA).
The three member organizations that are involved in the determination of the silver fixings are:

Fixings are given in both AM and PM times because the fixing closing process is conducted twice a day by telephone. The exceptions is Silver, for which only one daily fixing is performed.

Fixing Times are the following:

• Gold: Available twice a day at 10:30 AM GMT and 3:00 PM GMT
• Silver Available once a day at 12:00 PM GMT
• Platinum: Available twice a day at 9:45 AM GMT and 2:00 PM GMT
• Palladium: Available twice a day at 9:45 AM GMT and 2:00 PM GMT