The future casino
The futures volume traded exceeds the trade of physical products
manifold. This often is the case for soft commodities, crude and non-ferro
metals. Yet precious metals really trump all. Many on-line trading platforms
don’t even allow any physical settlement, reducing a future contract to a bet
on the future price. Describing a gold future transaction as "a promise to sell by a party who hasn't got the precious metal to a buyer who hasn't got the cash" is hardly exaggerating.
