A futures contract that has gold as an underlying. Gold futures are standardized, exchange-traded contracts in which the buyer (contract holder) agrees to take delivery, from the seller, a specific amount of gold at a predetermined price on a future delivery date. Such futures can also be settled in cash (cash settlement).

Gold futures are an appealing commodity for many market participants and for different reasons including investment, hedging, and diversification. These contracts can be traded nearly 24 hours per day, around the week. Gold futures have monthly trading cycles up to 12 months. Investors, therefore, can take positional trades beyond daily price movements. Gold futures trading is meant to capitalize on price changes, by means of the positions established (long position, short position). Trading gold by means of futures involves a margin account. In order to trade in gold futures, both the buyer and the seller need to maintain a margin for mitigation of counterparty risk.

A gold futures contract is a standardized derivatives contract entered into by and between two parties agreeing to buy or sell gold at a predetermined price and quantity (lot size) on a certain date in the future. Gold futures are standardized in terms of quality and quantity to enable trading on exchanges as per specific criteria. I

The prices of gold futures are set in major currencies such as US dollars and cents per 1 troy ounce (1 kg = 32.15 troy ounces) of 999 purity gold. The volume of one standard gold futures contract is 100 troy ounces, with two additional smaller contracts at 50 and 10 troy ounces.