Precious metals fixings: what they are, how they are calculated and how they are used

What a fixing is and what it is for

The price of a precious metal changes every instant on the spot markets. A contract, a price list or a stock valuation, however, need a single number, recognised by both parties and verifiable: that is exactly what a fixing is, a reference price set at an established time with a public method. The name comes from the London Gold Fixing, born in 1919, when the banks of the London market met to fix the price of gold.

Today the fixing serves the supply chain above all: the goldsmith valuing the fine metal in an object in euros per gram, the refiner settling a lot of scrap, the manufacturer buying silver or platinum for contacts and catalysts, the trader setting the day's price list. All of them need a common reference and a certain date.

The London auctions and the LBMA prices

The world reference prices of the four precious metals are the LBMA prices (LBMA Gold Price, LBMA Silver Price, LBMA Platinum Price and LBMA Palladium Price), administered by ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA). They come from electronic auctions: in each round the administrator publishes a price and participants have 30 seconds to enter, change or cancel their orders; if the imbalance between buying and selling exceeds the threshold, the price is adjusted and a new round starts, until the auction balances and the price is set.

The auctions are held at 10:30 and 15:00 for gold, at 12:00 for silver and at 09:45 and 14:00 for platinum, with palladium starting at the conclusion of the platinum auction, always London time. The price is in US dollars per troy ounce; sterling and euro are converted at the spot exchange rate at the end of the auction. There is no fixed publication time, because it depends on how many rounds are needed.

The LBMA prices are regulated benchmarks and their use in valuations, contracts and financial products requires a licence from IBA. That is why an operator who wants a freely usable reference needs a fixing of its own, calculated independently and transparently.

How the FT Mercati fixing is calculated

The FT Mercati fixing for each metal is calculated at the same times as the London auctions, with a simple and public method. At the auction time the system samples the spot price of the metal three times, after 45, 90 and 135 seconds, and calculates the arithmetic mean. The three readings are 45 seconds apart to dilute the weight of any single anomalous trade and to cover the first minutes of the auction, when the market converges on the price being formed.

The calculation is made in US dollars per troy ounce; the values in euros and pounds sterling are obtained at the spot exchange rate at the time of the fixing, and the values per gram and per kilo are derived from those per ounce. Silver has one fixing a day, as in London; gold, platinum and palladium have two, in the morning and in the afternoon. Palladium follows the platinum times, 09:45 and 14:00.

The method and times are published by FT Mercati; the London auction times are those indicated by LBMA and IBA as at 6 October 2026.

The times in Italian time

Italian time is always one hour ahead of London time, including during daylight saving time, because the two countries change their clocks on the same days. The FT Mercati fixings therefore fall at 11:30 and 16:00 for gold, at 13:00 for silver, and at 10:45 and 15:00 for platinum and palladium.

On UK public holidays the London auction is not held, but the spot markets remain open and the FT Mercati fixing is calculated all the same: anyone working in Italy has their reference even when London is closed. The only exceptions are 25 and 26 December and Easter Monday.

Troy ounce, gram and kilo: the conversions

International markets quote precious metals in US dollars per troy ounce. The troy ounce weighs 31.1034768 grams and should not be confused with the common ounce of 28.35 grams. The price per gram is the price per ounce divided by 31.1035; the price per kilo is the price per ounce multiplied by 32.1507, the number of troy ounces in a kilogram.

In Italy gold is traded in euros per gram and silver in euros per kilo: that is why FT Mercati publishes gold per gram and per ounce, silver per kilo and per ounce, and platinum and palladium in euros per gram and in dollars per ounce. The value of the fine metal contained in an object is obtained by multiplying the price per gram by the fineness: 750 gold means 75% fine gold, 925 silver means 92.5% fine silver.

FT Mercati fixings and LBMA prices: what changes

The two references are born in the same minutes but with different methods: the LBMA price is the result of the auction among the participants, the FT Mercati fixing is the mean of market spot prices sampled in the first minutes of the auction. The FT Mercati fixing is not the LBMA price and must not be presented as such: it is an independent index, calculated by FT Mercati, which our subscribers can use freely in price lists and contracts.

The difference in method makes the FT Mercati fixing transparent and reproducible: anyone who knows the method and has the spot prices can verify it. It is the same principle on which FT Mercati has calculated the Milan Indexes for non-ferrous metals since 1 August 2026, and the Milan Indexes for silver start precisely from the FT Mercati silver fixing.

How the fixing is used in contracts

The typical clause states the metal, the fixing (morning or afternoon), the currency and unit, and the reference day: for example the FT Mercati afternoon gold fixing in euros per gram on the day of delivery, or the average of the month's fixings. It is also worth stating what happens if the fixing is not calculated on that day (the first available fixing thereafter) and to how many decimal places the result is rounded.

For scrap and recovered material the starting point is the fixing, to which the fineness of the metal and the refiner's terms are applied; for semi-finished products processing costs are added; for silver on the Milan market the market references are the Milan Indexes, origin and spot, which start from the FT Mercati silver fixing and add the premiums and charges of the Italian market.

Precious metals fixings on FT Mercati

Every day we publish on the site the previous session's fixings for gold, silver, platinum and palladium in US dollars, euros and pounds sterling, per ounce, gram and kilo, with a chart of recent sessions: that is the precious metals fixing page. The day's fixings, under the rules of the service, are reserved for subscribers.

FT Mercati subscribers receive the fixings as soon as they are calculated, follow the spot prices of the four metals in real time and have history and alerts on the web and in the app: it is what anyone who buys and sells metal, semi-finished and finished products at the value of the moment needs. The service can be tried for free.