What moves the gold price starts as a quote you can copy
What moves the gold price is a question this page will not answer with a forecast. The useful work is smaller. Copy the quote in front of you before you talk about a cause.
Write the number only as it is printed. Next to it, write the unit, the currency, and the clock time on the page. If the page does not show a time, write ‘time not shown.’ Do not invent a timestamp.
Write whether the figure is a spot price or a futures price. If it is a futures price, write the contract month exactly as labeled. A front month and a later month are two rows, not one story.
Write the source name from the page header. A number with no source name is not a record you can check later. What moves the gold price, on this page, means the fields around the number, not a reason you add in the margin.
Fields that change the meaning of the same number
A price in one currency is not the same sentence as a price in another currency. Copy the currency code. Do not convert it unless the page itself prints the conversion, and if it does, copy that line too and mark it as theirs.
An ounce on one page may not be the unit on the next page. Copy the unit word. Do not assume a unit because that is the unit you expected.
A bid and an ask are two numbers. If both are printed, write both. If only a last trade is printed, write ‘last’ and do not fill in a spread you did not see.
A chart without a scale is not a price. If you save a picture, write the page address and the date you saved it. An unlabeled picture will not match the row a week later.
What this page will not claim
It will not claim that gold will rise or fall. It will not name a target. It will not say a return is likely, typical, or promised in advance. Those are forecasts. This page does not make them.
It will not say that a rate, a currency move, or a news headline caused the last change. A cause is a claim. If a research page states a relationship, leave the sentence on that page. Your row says what the quote showed.
It will not tell you how much gold to buy, or that gold belongs in a portfolio. Position size is not a fact this article can see. If an adviser gives you a figure, write their figure and their name, and do not upgrade it into a rule.
It will not repeat a demand statistic, a mine figure, or a central-bank total. Those numbers change, and a blog is a bad place to freeze them. Open the source and copy the figure there, with the date the source prints.
A source page, not a second opinion
The World Gold Council publishes a gold prices page. Read it as their page. Use it to see how they label a price. Do not treat this article as a summary that replaces it. The link is World Gold Council gold prices.
If their label and your other quote disagree, write both. Do not average them. An average you invent is a third price nobody published.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission explains futures in plain language on its education page. Gold futures are still futures. Read CFTC basics of futures trading before you treat a gold futures quote as a coin price.
You can read other notes on Commodities Markets. Use them for vocabulary. Use the quote page for the number. Use the CFTC page for what a futures contract is.
Questions worth writing before you explain a move
What unit and currency are on the quote. What month, if it is a future. What time the page shows. Which institution’s page you copied. Those four lines are the explanation you can defend.
If someone says rates moved gold, ask them which rate, which date, and which gold quote. Write their answer. If they have no date, write ‘no date given.’ Do not supply a date from memory.
If someone says the dollar moved gold, write the dollar measure they named. A general word is not a series. The series name belongs in the note.
If someone says fear moved gold, ask what they counted. A headline is not a measurement. You can file the headline as a headline. You cannot file it as a cause this page verified.
Futures month versus a coin on the table
A futures quote is a contract for a stated month, on the terms the exchange prints. A coin or a bar is a product with a premium a dealer sets. Write which one you are looking at. Do not mix the two rows.
If a dealer shows a premium, copy their words. This page will not say the premium is fair, high, or low. Fair is a judgment. The printed premium is a fact you can store.
Storage, insurance, and a fund’s fee are costs only if a document states them. Copy the document. Do not invent a yearly cost to make the note look complete.
Delivery and cash settlement are different endings. The contract page says which one applies. If you have not opened that page, write ‘settlement not checked.’
How to keep a week of quotes without a story
One row a day is enough. Same source, same unit, same contract label. If you change any of those, start a new column and say why.
At the end of the week, you can say whether the printed number was higher or lower than your first row. You cannot say the path will continue. A week is a record. It is not a signal.
If the source revises a figure, write the revision date and keep the old row. Deleting the old row makes the change invisible.
If you stop, write the stop date. A blank week should not be read as a quiet market. It may only mean you did not look.
When two pages disagree
Open both pages on the same day and write the time each one shows. A disagreement that is really a time difference is not a mystery. It is two clocks.
Check the unit again before you call anyone. A lot of apparent gaps are unit gaps. Write the unit in the first column so you see it before the number.
Check whether one page is a futures month and the other is a spot figure. Those are allowed to differ. The note should say so, instead of declaring one of them wrong.
If you still cannot reconcile them, leave both rows and write ‘unresolved.’ Resolving it with a guess helps nobody who reads the card later, including you.
What to do with a confident prediction
Put the prediction in quotes and name the person. Then write the quote you can actually see today. The distance between those two lines is the whole point of the card.
Do not add a probability. This page has no probability to give you. A round number you like is still an invention.
Do not size a trade from the card. The card is a reading list. A trade needs the contract terms, the margin rules your broker prints, and a decision this article will not make.
Concrete tip: copy the gold quote’s unit, currency, time, and contract month if any, and do not write a cause unless a named source stated it on a page you can reopen.
What moves the gold price, after a week of this habit, is a folder of labeled quotes. A folder of reasons without quotes is a conversation. Keep the conversation if you want. Do not let it replace the row.
