GC (gold) contract basics

The gold contract, spec by spec

Gold futures trade on the COMEX exchange under the ticker GC. One GC contract represents 100 troy ounces of physical gold. The price quote you see — say 2,400.00 — is dollars per ounce. So a single GC contract at that quote controls $240,000 worth of gold. That's a lot of exposure for a $500 starter account, which is why we'll spend most of this chapter talking about the micro version.

The tick — the smallest price change — is 0.10 (ten cents). Because one contract covers 100 ounces, every tick is worth $10. If gold moves from 2,400.00 up to 2,401.00, that's 10 ticks, and your account changed by $100 per contract. Move it five dollars and you're up or down $500 — already your entire starter balance. Respect the math before you respect anything else.

Contracts trade nearly 24 hours a day on Globex, Sunday evening through Friday afternoon (US Central time), with a short maintenance break each day. The most active months are February, April, June, August, October, December — but you'll usually see two front months listed. The convention is to trade the front month (closest expiration) until volume rolls to the next one, then roll with it.

Recap: GC = 100 oz, tick 0.10 = $10. MGC = 10 oz, tick 0.10 = $1. Start small, count ticks, and the size question solves itself.