16. How big is the gold market?
The market value of all the gold in the world is about $2 trillion. Every year, around 4,000 tonnes of physical gold are traded worldwide in the form of jewellery, investment gold and industrial gold, but that is not the only gold that is traded.
On the LBMA, much larger amounts of gold are traded directly, the so-called over the counter market. In 2010, the daily trading volume in this market was $67.4 billion. On the Comex – where futures contracts are traded gold – the daily trading volume in 2010 was about $20.8 billion. These volumes are much larger than the volume reported by the World Gold Council. This is because a lot of gold is only traded on paper and there are many more claims on gold circulating than what is physically present in gold.
Source: World Gold Council
