COMEX is one of the most well-known and recognized exchanges for the trading of metals such as gold, silver, copper and aluminum. The COMEX exchange was founded in New York in 1933. The name COMEX was short for Commodity Exchange, Inc.
In 1994, the COMEX exchange merged with the New York Mercantile exchange and became the division for metals trading. Both the New York Mercantile exchange and the COMEX exchange are now part of CME Group, the largest commodity exchange operator. The COMEX division of CME group is based out of New York, and this is where pit-traded metals transactions occur.
The COMEX division of CME group trades futures contracts in the following markets:
Gold
Silver
Copper
Aluminum
Palladium
Platinum
Steel
Some of these contracts are traded as a standard size contract as well as a mini and/or micro version. According to CME Group, there are on average over 400,000 futures and options contracts executed on COMEX daily making it the most liquid metals exchange in the world.
