NOTE: times are given in Pacific Standard Time: fixings are done every day at 10:30 GMT and 15:00 GMT.



The Fixings are an open process at which market participants can transact business on the basis of a single quoted price. Orders can be changed throughout the proceedings as the price is moved higher and lower until such time as buyers' and sellers' orders are satisfied and the price is said to be 'fixed'.



Orders executed at the fixings are conducted as principal-to-principal transactions between the client and the dealer through whom the order is placed.



The fixings are the internationally published benchmarks for precious metals. They are fully transparent and are therefore used to deal in large amounts, or to achieve the accepted average price of the metal. As a benchmark, many other financial instruments are priced off the fixing, including cash-settled swaps and options. The silver fixing started in 1897 and the gold fixing in 1919.



The Gold Fixing is conducted twice a day by telephone, at approximately 10:30 am and 3:00 pm. There are five Gold Fixing members - all of whom are Market Making members of the LBMA. They are the Bank of Nova Scotia–ScotiaMocatta, Barclays Bank Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Bank USA, NA and Société Générale. The chairmanship of the Gold Fixing rotates annually amongst its members.



Three Market Making members of the LBMA conduct the Silver Fixing meeting under the chairmanship of The Bank of Nova Scotia–ScotiaMocatta by telephone at 12.00 noon each working day. The other two members of the Silver Fixing are Deutsche Bank AG and HSBC Bank USA, NA.



Clients place orders with the dealing rooms of fixing members, who net all orders before communicating their interest to their representative at the fixing. The metal price is then adjusted to reflect whether there are more buyers or sellers at a given price until such time as supply and demand is seen to be balanced. Throughout the proceedings customers may change their orders, at which point the fixing member will raise a small flag to visually convey to the other members that they are changing their order. The price cannot be 'fixed' whilst a flag is raised.



The fixing is an open transparent process that allows customers to be kept advised of price movements, together with the changes in the level of interest, while the fixing is in progress such that they may cancel, increase or decrease their interest dependent upon this information.