By Rocco Clayfield, founder of GoldPaid (GOLDPAID LTD) · Published · updated
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Three clocks, running at three speeds
People ask how often the scrap gold price changes and expect one answer. There are three, and they answer different questions.
| What it is | How often it moves | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| The wholesale spot market | Near-continuously, roughly 24 hours a day, five days a week | What the trade actually deals at |
| The LBMA Gold Price benchmark | Twice a day, 10:30 and 15:00 London time | A settlement and reference price the whole industry can point at |
| A UK buyer rate published on a page | When the buyer updates it, which should be dated | What that buyer says it pays per gram on that date |
Almost every complaint about a quote changing traces back to reading one of these as if it were another.
The wholesale market: near-continuous
Gold has no single exchange. It trades over the counter between banks, refiners, dealers and funds, in overlapping sessions that run from Sunday evening through to Friday evening UK time, with a short daily pause of around an hour. For practical purposes the price is moving whenever the world is awake, which is nearly all the time.
That means there is no such thing as today’s gold price in the singular. There is a price at a moment. A figure quoted at breakfast and a figure quoted at teatime on the same day are both accurate and can differ.
The LBMA benchmark: twice a day, by auction
The reference figure the trade settles against is the LBMA Gold Price, set twice each London business day at 10:30 and 15:00 and administered independently by ICE Benchmark Administration. It is not a survey or an opinion. It is a live electronic auction: a chairperson sets a starting price, participants enter buy and sell volumes in ounces, and the rounds continue until buying and selling interest match within a tolerance, an imbalance of up to 10,000 ounces, which is then shared among the direct participants.
The benchmark is published in US dollars per troy ounce. Sterling and euro figures are published as indicative, for settlement purposes. That distinction matters more to a UK seller than it sounds, and it is the subject of the next section.
The sterling problem: two moving parts, not one
Gold is quoted internationally in dollars. What you are paid is in pounds. So the figure a UK seller receives depends on two independent variables: the dollar gold price and the GBP/USD exchange rate.
The consequence catches people out regularly. Gold can be flat in dollars all week while the sterling figure rises, purely because the pound weakened. It can also fall in dollars while rising in pounds, or the reverse. Reading a headline about the gold price hitting a record and assuming it applies to a UK scrap rate is a common and expensive mistake, because headlines are almost always dollar-denominated.
Why a buyer rate on a web page is not live
A per-gram rate that genuinely updated every second would be unusable. You could not compare it, screenshot it or plan around it, and by the time you had weighed your items it would have changed. So responsible buyers publish a dated rate and apply the rate for the day when they write the offer.
GoldPaid does not publish a live per-gram rate. Instead the written offer applies the live market on the day your items are valued to the weight and purity measured. A buyer advertising a live, second-by-second scrap rate is describing something the mechanics do not support, because a scrap figure contains a margin that is set rather than traded.
What actually happens on the day you sell
On arrival each item is assayed and weighed and the carats are separated. The offer applies the live market on the day of valuation to that weight and purity, and the figure appears on the written offer, so you can check it against public market data rather than taking it on trust.
That is also why an indicative figure given from a photograph a fortnight earlier is not a promise. It was accurate for the market that day and for the purity we guessed at. Both can change. What does not change is the method, which is set out in spot price vs scrap price explained.
How long an offer stays open
An offer held open is a buyer taking price risk on your behalf, so ask any buyer how long theirs stands. GoldPaid’s written offer is dated and holds for a limited time; if it lapses before you decide, it is re-run at the day’s rate. If the market has moved in your favour while you think it over, ask for the figure to be re-run rather than accepting the old one.
A buyer who holds a figure open indefinitely has either priced in a wide buffer or intends to revise it. Neither is what it appears to be.
Should you wait for a better day?
The answer is that nobody can tell you. Gold moves in both directions and timing it is a separate skill from clearing a drawer of jewellery you no longer wear. Professional traders with live data and hedging tools get it wrong routinely.
What can be said usefully is narrower. Over a few days the movement on a typical household parcel is usually small relative to the difference between an itemised offer and a blended one, so choosing the right method of sale generally matters more than choosing the right week. That is covered in why gold recycling prices differ between buyers. This is general information about how pricing works, not advice on whether or when to sell.