How the Daily Gold Fixing Works

Unlike a stock, gold doesn't have one single official closing price. Instead, the global bullion market relies on a benchmark called the LBMA Gold Price, set twice a day — at 10:30am and 3:00pm London time — through an electronic auction process among participating banks and trading firms. These two readings are commonly referred to as the AM and PM 'fix'.

The fixing exists because large commercial buyers — jewellery manufacturers, refiners, central banks, ETFs — need a single, transparent, widely-accepted reference price to settle large contracts against. Rather than negotiating a rate deal by deal, both sides can agree to transact 'at the fix', with the exact number confirmed shortly after the auction closes.

For day-to-day retail pricing, most bullion dealers — including us — track the live spot price, which moves continuously through the trading day based on global supply, demand, currency movements (particularly USD, since gold is dollar-denominated) and macroeconomic sentiment. Our rate ticker reflects this spot-based pricing, updated periodically. Rates on this site are refreshed periodically throughout the day from live global market data (XAU/USD, XAG/USD), converted to AED across the purities we deal in — not a tick-by-tick real-time feed.

For trade clients transacting in larger volumes, we can quote against the AM or PM fix instead of spot, which is often preferred for its transparency and because it aligns with how many businesses in the supply chain — including refiners and other suppliers — already price their own contracts. See our Metal Fixing & Hedging page for how this works in practice.

Whichever reference is used, the underlying principle is the same: the price of gold is a live, globally-traded number, not something any single dealer sets independently.