The spot silver price refers to the price of silver for immediate delivery. Transactions for bullion coins are almost always priced using the spot price as a basis. The spot silver market is trading very close to 24 hours a day as there is almost always a location somewhere in the world that is actively taking orders for silver transactions. New York, London, Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Zurich are where most of the trading activity takes place. Whenever bullion dealers in any of these cities are active, it is indicated on websites with the message “Spot Market is Open”. For the high and low values, we are showing the lowest bid and the highest ask of the day.

The silver futures market is one of a number of commodity futures, wherein contracts are entered into, agreeing to buy or sell gold at a certain price at a specified future date. Silver futures are used both as a way for silver producers and market makers to hedge their products against fluctuations in the market and as a way for speculators to make money off of those same movements in the market. A precious metals futures contract is a legally binding agreement for delivery of a metal in the future at an agreed-upon price. The contracts are standardized by a futures exchange as to the quantity, quality, time, and place of delivery. Only the price is variable.

There is usually a difference between the spot price of silver and the future price. The future price is used for futures contracts and represents the price to be paid on the date of a delivery of gold in the future. In normal markets, the futures price for gold is higher than the spot. The difference is determined by the number of days to the delivery contract date, prevailing interest rates, and the strength of the market demand for immediate physical delivery. The difference between the spot price and the future price, when expressed as an annual percentage rate is known as the “forward rate”.

This is the change in the price of the metal from the previous close, which is not necessarily the previous day. Weekdays from 6:00 PM NY time until midnight the previous close is from the current day. Here’s why: The time the silver market stops trading in New York on weekdays is for a 60 min period, from 5:00 PM New York time until 6:00 PM. Kitco uses the last quote at 5:00 PM as the close of that given day. Change is always the difference between the current price and the price at 5:00pm. For example: Silver last traded at $17.00 at 5:00 PM on January 17. If it is January 17 at 6:30 PM and the price is $17.02, we will show a change of +0.02. If it is January 18 at 5:00 PM and gold is quoted at $17.50 then we would show a change of +0.50 at that time.