What is COMEX?

The Commodity Exchange, better known as COMEX, is a division of the New York Mercantile Exchange that trades futures in metals such as gold, silver, copper and aluminium. It was formed in 1933 to bring together a collection of existing silk, rubber and metal exchanges.

Where have you heard about COMEX?

It’s perhaps not that well-known in the UK, but in the US the COMEX is one of the most recognised exchanges for metal trading. It has a long history of pit trading where swarms of traders shout out and make hand signals to communicate with each other.

What you need to know about COMEX...

In 1994 the COMEX merged with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), creating the world’s largest physical futures trading exchange.

From the 1970s to 1990s the COMEX and NYMEX shared a single trading floor in the World Trade Centre, but moved to a new building before the 9/11 terror attacks.

The New York Mercantile Exchange is owned by CME Group, the world’s largest commodity exchange operator. According to CME, there are more than 400,000 futures and options contracts executed on the COMEX in an average day.