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The gold price used by dealers, central banks, and financial institutions worldwide is set twice each London business day via the LBMA Gold Price auction - an electronic benchmark process administered by ICE Benchmark Administration. The morning fix is at 10:30am London time; the afternoon fix is at 3:00pm.
These two fixes are the reference prices for the majority of commercial gold transactions globally, including the prices you see quoted by UK bullion dealers.
At a glance
| Morning fix | Afternoon fix | |
|---|---|---|
| Time (London) | 10:30am | 3:00pm |
| Currency | USD | USD |
| GBP price | Derived via live FX rate | Derived via live FX rate |
| Participants | LBMA member banks and bullion dealers | Same |
| Used by | Physical dealers, contracts, central banks | Financial products, settlement |
What is the LBMA?
The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) is the trade body overseeing the London OTC (over-the-counter) gold and silver market. It sets standards for good delivery bars, maintains a list of approved refiners, and oversees responsible sourcing practices.
London has been the centre of the global gold market since the 1600s. The daily gold price fix dates to 1919 when five banks gathered in a room and set a single daily price. The process has since moved entirely to an electronic auction platform run by ICE Benchmark Administration, with dozens of participants rather than five.
How the auction works
Participants - LBMA member banks and authorised bullion dealers - submit buy and sell orders into the ICE platform simultaneously.
A proposed price is announced. Participants submit the volume they would buy or sell at that price. If there is more buying than selling (or vice versa) at that price, the proposed price adjusts up or down. This continues - typically through several rounds over five to ten minutes - until supply and demand are within 20 tonnes of balance. At that point, the fix is set.
No single participant controls the outcome. The price emerges from the aggregate of submitted orders.
Spot price vs the fix
The “spot price” you see quoted in real time on gold price charts is different from the fix.
Spot is the price of gold for immediate delivery, traded continuously in the OTC interbank market. It moves second by second based on orders from banks, funds, and institutions globally.
The fix is a snapshot - a standardised benchmark set twice a day from a structured auction process. It is used as the reference price for contracts, dealer pricing, and settlement.
When a UK bullion dealer says their price is “spot plus 4%,” they typically mean the current live spot price, not the most recent fix. The two track each other closely but are not identical.
How the price moves to GBP
The LBMA auction sets the price in USD per troy ounce. UK dealers convert this to GBP using the live GBP/USD exchange rate at the time.
This means the gold price in GBP can change even when the dollar gold price is flat - if the pound weakens or strengthens.
In 2022, the pound fell sharply against the dollar (reaching a low of roughly $1.035 in September 2022). UK investors saw the GBP gold price rise significantly that year even though the USD gold price moved less dramatically. The exchange rate was doing much of the work.
For UK investors, this matters: buying gold is partly a bet that GBP/USD won’t rise sharply, as a rising pound depresses the GBP gold price.
What happens to gold prices outside London hours
The gold price is traded globally, 23 hours a day (Monday morning Auckland time to Friday afternoon New York time). During London’s closed hours, price discovery moves to New York (COMEX futures exchange) and then to Asian markets (Shanghai Gold Exchange, Tokyo).
COMEX futures - gold futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange - are the largest futures market for gold. Futures prices and spot prices converge at delivery periods but can diverge based on cost of carry (interest rates and storage costs). For UK retail investors, the COMEX futures price is relevant primarily as a real-time indicator of where gold is heading, not as a direct transaction price.
Why gold prices sometimes move when UK markets are closed
Gold trades across three overlapping sessions - Asia, London, and New York. If there is a major overnight event (US Federal Reserve announcement, geopolitical news, Chinese economic data), the price can move substantially while UK investors sleep. UK dealer prices when London opens will reflect overnight moves.
Tax and regulation
No VAT: Investment gold purchases are VAT-free in the UK. The fix price is a pre-VAT benchmark - dealer prices for investment gold products do not add VAT on top.
CGT: The gold price itself is not a taxable event. CGT arises on disposal - when you sell.
FCA regulation: The LBMA auction is a regulated benchmark under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. ICE Benchmark Administration holds FCA authorisation as a benchmark administrator.
How people use this information
Most UK retail buyers don’t need to know when the fix runs. What matters for day-to-day buying is the live spot price, which is updated continuously on price tracker tools.
Where the fix matters practically: some dealer contracts and buyback quotes are based on the PM fix for that day. If you’re selling a large amount and timing matters, knowing when the PM fix runs (3:00pm London) can be relevant.
Frequently asked questions
Is the gold price the same globally? The dollar gold price is effectively a global price - differences between markets (London, New York, Shanghai) are kept very tight by arbitrage. The GBP price is derived from the dollar price via the live exchange rate, so it varies with sterling.
How do dealer prices relate to the spot price? UK bullion dealers quote prices as a percentage above spot. The premium covers minting costs (for coins), dealer margin, and supply-demand factors. In normal conditions, premiums on major bullion coins are 3–8% above the live spot price equivalent.
What caused the big gold price moves in March 2020? Extreme market stress caused a temporary dislocation between London spot and COMEX futures prices. Physical gold also became scarce as refineries shut down (some Swiss refineries closed temporarily). The unusual spread between physical and paper gold prices reflected genuine supply constraints, not a pricing error.
Can the fix be manipulated? It has been in the past. Between 2004 and 2014, several banks paid regulatory fines for attempting to manipulate the prior benchmark (the telephone-based London Gold Fix). The current electronic ICE process was introduced specifically to address those vulnerabilities - multiple participants, electronic audit trails, and ICE oversight. It is not immune to influence, but it is substantially more robust than the old process.