Gold Futures Explained: GC, MGC and 1OZ on COMEX

Short answer: a gold futures contract is a standard, exchange-traded agreement to buy or sell a set amount of gold in a set month at today’s agreed price. On COMEX, part of CME Group, the main contract is GC (100 troy ounces), with the micro MGC (10 ounces) and 1OZ (1 ounce). As commonly published, a $0.10 tick is worth $10 on GC and $1 on MGC, and 1OZ ticks at $0.25. You post margin, gains and losses are settled in cash every day, and the contract expires, so traders roll to the next month. A futures price sits above spot by the cost of carry (the basis), which is why XAUUSD and GC never show quite the same number.

In plain words: imagine ordering a gold bar today for collection in December, at a price fixed now. You pay a deposit, not the full price. Every evening the shop checks the price: if gold went up you get the difference in cash, if it fell you pay it. Most people never collect the bar. Before December they cancel and place a new order for February. That is a gold future.

Where this lesson fits. It is the bridge between the beginner lessons and the deeper futures material. The futures vs CFDs lesson compares the two instruments for a trader choosing between them. The Pro Track lessons on futures basis and the roll and the futures curve and carry go into the maths. This page explains how the contract works and how to read futures data without being fooled by it.

What a futures contract is

A futures contract has four fixed parts and one moving part:

1. Quantity: for GC, 100 troy ounces.
2. Quality: gold of a set minimum purity, in bars from approved refiners.
3. Delivery month: for example December 2026.
4. Delivery place: approved vaults in the New York area.
5. Price: the only part traders negotiate.

Because everything else is standard, the contract can change hands thousands of times a day between strangers. A clearing house stands between every buyer and every seller, so neither has to trust the other. If the buyer goes bust, the clearing house still pays the seller, and the other way round.

Long and short

Buying a future (going long) means you profit if the price rises. Selling one (going short) means you profit if it falls. You can sell first without owning any gold, because you are only agreeing to deliver later, and you will close the position before that. For every long there is exactly one short, so the total number of open contracts (open interest) tells you how many promises are outstanding, not how many people are bullish.

Why futures exist

Gold futures began as a tool for people with real gold risk: miners who want to lock in a selling price, jewellers and refiners who want to fix a buying price, and banks that hold gold for clients. Speculators provide the other side and take on the price risk for a chance at profit. Today most futures trading is financial: very few contracts end in delivery, but the price they set is watched by the whole gold market.

The COMEX gold contracts

How sure are these numbers? The GC and MGC sizes and ticks are published on CME Group’s contract pages and repeated on our futures basis Pro Track lesson. The 1OZ figures come from CME’s 1-ounce gold FAQ as found by search. CME’s pages blocked our automated access while we wrote this, so we could not re-check them on the day: treat every row as commonly published, verify before trading. Specifications do change.

Tick value and point value

Two terms trip up new futures traders:

• A tick is the smallest price step. On GC it is $0.10 per ounce. On 100 ounces that is $10 per tick.
• A point (or “handle”) usually means a $1 move in the gold price. On GC that is ten ticks, $100.

Worked example (hypothetical): gold moves from 4,000.0 to 4,012.3, a move of $12.3. On GC that is 123 ticks × $10 = $1,230 per contract. On MGC it is $123, and on 1OZ, $12.30. The same arithmetic tells you the size: if your stop is $12.30 away and you will risk $123, you can hold one MGC, and you cannot hold even one GC. Our contract converter does this for any size.

Month codes and symbols

Each contract month has a one-letter code: F Jan, G Feb, H Mar, J Apr, K May, M Jun, N Jul, Q Aug, U Sep, V Oct, X Nov, Z Dec. Add the year: GCZ26 is December 2026 gold, GCG27 February 2027. Data vendors use their own suffixes (for example Yahoo Finance writes the December contract as GCZ26.CMX and the continuous front month as GC=F). The busiest gold months are usually February, April, June, August, October and December; the others trade, but thinly.

Reading a futures quote

A futures quote board shows more than one price, and each column answers a different question:

Two quick habits help. First, look at volume across months before you trade: the month with the most volume is the one to use. Second, remember that “change” is measured from the settlement price, so it can disagree with the change you see on a chart that uses the last trade of the day. The same rule explains why a free chart’s daily close can be a few dimes away from the official settlement.

Trading hours

COMEX gold trades electronically on CME Globex from 18:00 to 17:00 New York time, Sunday to Friday, with a one-hour break each afternoon. That is the same trading day our Academy uses. The daily settlement price is set around 13:30 New York time. The gold market hours tool shows these times in your own zone.

Margin and daily settlement

You do not pay the full value of a futures contract. One GC at 4,000 controls $400,000 of gold, but you post only initial margin, a deposit set by the exchange (your broker may ask more). If losses push your account below the maintenance margin, you get a margin call: add money or the position is cut. The exchange raises margins when gold gets volatile, sometimes at short notice. We don’t quote a figure here because it changes; the current numbers are on CME Group’s margin pages, and our gold margin calculator shows the CFD side.

The part that surprises spot traders is daily settlement, also called marking to market. Every afternoon the exchange sets a settlement price, and every open position is paid or charged the change since yesterday, in cash. A losing futures position does not just sit there with a paper loss: the loss leaves your account that evening.

A real example: long one December contract, 26 October to 3 November 2026

Here is what a long position in the December 2026 contract (GCZ26) would have been paid or charged each day, using the daily closes in our curve file as a stand-in for the official settlement prices.

Over the six days the position lost $98.0 per ounce: $9,800 on one GC, $980 on one MGC and $98.00 on one 1OZ. But the account felt it day by day. On 30 October alone, when the December contract fell $132.5 per ounce to a low of 3,879.3, a long GC paid $13,250 in one settlement, and a long MGC $1,325. A trader with too little spare cash could be forced out that evening, even though the price bounced $70.7 the next trading day. This is the real lesson of margin: size for the worst day, not the average day.

Expiry and the roll

Futures contracts expire. For COMEX gold:

• Last trading day: the third-last business day of the delivery month. For December 2026 that is 29 December 2026, as listed in our curve file.
• First notice day: the last business day of the month before the delivery month (30 November 2026 for December). From that day, holders of long positions can be assigned delivery.

Most traders who don’t want gold delivered roll: they close the expiring month and open the next active one, usually in the days or weeks before first notice day. The cost of rolling is the calendar spread, the price difference between the two months, plus trading costs.

A perfect real case: the 29 July 2026 roll in our own data

The site’s hourly gold file is the continuous front-month series GC=F. It is not adjusted for rolls. When the data provider switched from the August to the December contract on 29 July 2026, the chart jumped.

• The 02:00 New York candle closed at 4,039.8 on the August contract.
• The 03:00 candle opened at the August price and closed at 4,102.6 on December: $62.8 higher, a candle $66.8 tall with a high of 4,106.7. That month’s median hourly candle was $14.4.
• The curve file confirms it: that day December settled at 4,097.0 and November at 4,081.7. The new level matches December, not a rally.

Nobody made $62.8 that hour. The chart simply changed contracts. The daily file did the same two days later: it closed at 4,036.3 on 29 July and 4,100.1 on 30 July, still on August, and opened at 4,163.9 on 31 July, on the new contract.

This happens every two months. Our scan of the hourly file found 11 switches between June 2024 and November 2026, with jumps from $22.1 to $62.7 (median $37.0).

Why it matters to a XAUUSD trader: if you backtest on a continuous futures chart without adjusting, every roll looks like a huge breakout candle, a gap, or a stop being hit. Our Academy removes every roll session from its tests, and our backtesting with free data lesson shows how. A spot XAUUSD chart has no rolls at all.

Basis: why futures trade above spot

Holding gold costs money: you could have earned interest on the cash instead, and you pay to store and insure the metal. A futures seller who holds gold until delivery wants to be paid for that, so a future normally trades above spot. The difference is the basis:

basis = futures price − spot price ≈ spot × interest rate × time to delivery (minus a small lease income, plus storage).

Real check, 30 October 2026: the December contract closed at 3,898.9; a spot gold close on the site was 3,876.4. The basis was about $22.5. With the 3-month US Treasury bill at 3.99% and 60 days to the December last trading day, the simple carry estimate is 3,876.4 × 3.99% × 60/360 ≈ $25.8. Close, but not equal: the spot and futures closes were taken at different times of day, and the formula leaves out lease rates and storage. Our spot gold vs gold futures guide explains the gap in plain terms.

The basis shrinks as delivery approaches, because there are fewer days of carry left. On the last trading day the future and spot meet. This is called convergence.

The curve

Line up every contract month and you get the futures curve. When later months are higher, as they almost always are for gold, the market is in contango. The reverse, backwardation, is rare in gold and usually a sign of a shortage of metal to borrow.

On 30 October 2026, the day of the basis check above, our curve file had 23 months, from November 2026 at 3,885.7 and December at 3,898.9, through February 2027 at 3,930.9 ($32.0 above December), to October 2028 at 4,239.9: $341.0 of carry over about two years. The live version is on our gold futures curve tool.

The calendar spread moves too

The roll cost is not fixed. The spread between February 2027 and December 2026 is the price of rolling a December long forward two months.

Over 129 days from May to November 2026 it ranged from $31.3 to $37.3. Annualised over the 57 days between the two contracts’ last trading days, the median was 5.06% a year, a little above the T-bill rate. When interest rates rise, rolling a long future costs more; when they fall, less. The futures curve and carry Pro Track lesson goes deeper.

How XAUUSD relates to gold futures

Spot gold (XAUUSD) and COMEX futures are two windows on the same market:

• Spot is the over-the-counter price for gold delivered now (in practice two days), quoted by banks and dealers around the clock. CFD brokers build their XAUUSD quotes from it.
• Futures are exchange prices for later months. They add the basis.
• Arbitrage keeps them together. If December rose far above spot plus carry, dealers would buy spot, sell December and pocket the difference until the gap closed.

For a XAUUSD trader that has four practical consequences:

1. Levels differ by the basis. A support at 4,000 on a futures chart is roughly 3,975 to 3,980 on spot when the basis is $20 to $25. Our analysis pages convert futures data into spot terms for that reason.
2. The shape is the same. Intraday highs, lows and ranges move together almost tick for tick, so hourly futures data is a fair guide to how spot behaves.
3. The continuous futures chart jumps; spot does not. See the roll above.
4. The calendar matters for futures traders only. First notice day and expiry do not exist for a spot CFD, which has an overnight swap instead. Our futures vs CFDs lesson compares the costs.

Futures data you can use as a spot trader

Even if you never trade a future, three futures data sets help a XAUUSD trader:

• Volume: spot forex volume is not centrally reported, but futures volume is. Our volume profile tool is built from it.
• Positioning: the CFTC’s weekly Commitments of Traders report shows how big categories of traders are positioned in COMEX gold. See the COT report tool.
• The curve: a sudden change in the calendar spread can signal stress in the physical market. Watch it on the futures curve tool.

Base rates and limits from our data

• Roll jumps: 11 in about two and a half years, $22.1 to $62.7 each. A naive backtest treats each one as a real move.
• Carry: the Dec 2026 to Feb 2027 spread annualised at a median of 5.06% a year (May to November 2026).
• Daily settlement: in one real week (26 October to 3 November 2026) the December contract’s daily changes ranged from -$132.5 to +$70.7 per ounce.

All from Yahoo Finance closes, which can differ slightly from official exchange settlement prices. Far contract months trade rarely, so their closes may be stale.

Pro nuance

• Rolling is a trade. When you roll a long, you sell the near month and buy the far month. If the spread widens before you roll, your roll costs more. Large funds roll in a known window, which some traders watch.
• Delivery is real. Holding a long into the notice period can mean taking delivery of 100 ounces of gold, with the full cash needed. Retail brokers usually close or block positions before first notice day; know your broker’s rule.
• Settlement prices drive margin, not your entry price. A position can be in profit since entry and still pay variation margin today.
• Liquidity sits in the front active month. The nearest month is not always the busiest: in early November 2026 the November contract existed, but the active month was December.
• Micro and 1-ounce contracts are newer and thinner. Spreads can be wider than on GC at quiet times, and the 1OZ contract is cash-settled rather than delivered.

Worked example (hypothetical): sizing and rolling a micro position

A trader with $15,000 wants a long gold position for six weeks with a $40 stop and 1% risk ($150).

1. Size: $150 / $40 = $3.75 per $1 move. One MGC is $10 per $1 move, which would risk $400: too big. The trader either widens the risk budget, accepts a smaller stop for a better entry, or uses 1OZ contracts (three 1OZ = $3 per $1, risking $120).
2. Choose MGC with a tighter plan: the trader waits for a pullback to a level that allows a $15 stop. One MGC now risks $150.
3. Month: it is late October, so the trader buys December (MGCZ26), the active month.
4. Diary: first notice day 30 November. Roll in the week before, around 23 November, into February.
5. Roll cost: if the spread is $32, rolling one MGC long costs about $320 (32 × 10) plus fees. That is part of the carry the trader pays for holding a long future, much as a CFD trader pays overnight swap.
6. Daily settlement: the trader keeps at least two worst-day moves (say $250 per ounce, $2,500 per MGC) of spare cash above margin.

The spread and the worst-day figure are illustrations, not current market numbers.

Common mistakes

• Confusing tick and point. A $1 move on GC is $100, not $10. Write the conversion on your plan.
• Sizing a GC trade like a 0.1-lot CFD. One GC is 100 ounces, like a full standard lot.
• Holding into first notice day. Diary every roll date.
• Backtesting on an unadjusted continuous chart. The 11 roll jumps in our file would each show up as a fake breakout.
• Treating margin as the risk. Margin is a deposit. Your loss is the stop distance times the contract value per dollar, and a gap can go through the stop.
• Expecting futures and spot charts to show the same levels. They differ by the basis, which changes every day.
• Trading illiquid months by mistake. Check that you are in the active month before you click.

Quick checklist

1. Which contract (GC, MGC or 1OZ), and what is its tick value and point value?
2. Is my size calculated from the stop: dollars at risk / (stop in $ × point value)?
3. Am I in the active month, and when are its first notice day and last trading day?
4. Do I have cash for at least two worst-day settlements above maintenance margin?
5. Have I checked the current margin on the exchange’s page, not a remembered figure?
6. If I use futures data for spot levels, have I adjusted for the basis?
7. Does my backtest data remove or adjust the contract rolls?

Sources

• CME Group: Gold futures (GC) contract specifications (100 troy oz, $0.10 tick; page blocked our automated check on 6 November 2026, listed as commonly published)
• CME Group: Micro Gold futures (MGC) (10 troy oz, $0.10 tick; same caveat)
• CME Group: 1-Ounce Gold futures FAQ ($0.25 tick, cash-settled against GC; found by search, not re-checked on the page)
• CME Group: COMEX Rulebook, Chapter 113, Gold futures (delivery, first notice and last trading day rules)
• CME Group: margins (current initial and maintenance margins)
• CFTC: Commitments of Traders
• Our own data: the site’s COMEX gold futures continuous hourly and daily files (GC=F) and the contract-month curve file (GCX26 to GCV28) via Yahoo Finance; 3-month Treasury bill rate (DTB3) from FRED; a spot gold close for 30 October 2026 from the site’s spot feed (gold-api.com). Roll jumps found by our scan of the hourly file, June 2024 to November 2026.

Educational content only, not financial advice. Trading gold futures with leverage carries a high risk of loss.

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