New ways to trade commodities - the world's oldest market

We offer CFDs on gold, silver, platinum, copper and more on our Commodities page. Precious metals such as gold and silver can be considered one of the first ever traded commodities. Investors and traders generally view gold as a safe haven during economic, political or social uncertainty due to their relatively stable demand and the world’s limited supply. 

See contract expiry dates

The unit of measure for precious metals are in troy ounces. Please refer to the market specification for precious metals to see the contract sizes for Gold, Silver, Palladium and Platinum against the US dollar. 

Check out our Contract Expiry Dates

Apply for an account by submitting your contact details, personal information (with proof of address), bank statement & trading experience. Once the application is complete & all appropriateness checks are valid, we’ll email you access codes to our client portal. Upon opening the portal with your unique details, you’ll be able to make your first deposit via secure transfer along with your proof of account.

Open a live trading account

Precious metal markets open at (18:00:00 New York time (i.e., 22:00:00 GMT) and you can make trades on XAUUSD, XAGUSD, XPTUSD, XAUEUR and XAGEUR via our trading platforms from 10 seconds after markets open at 18:00:10 NY time (22:00:10 GMT). This is because market participants are often 'guessing' where the price should be in the first few seconds, and some will quote wildly wide prices, while others will choose to wait for someone else to start pricing before they do. Generally, this price discovery process calms down within a few seconds. 10 seconds after the open, our systems can accurately aggregate prices from multiple reputable sources, cross-reference the pricing, and eliminate any potential discrepancies, ensuring that you have the most precise price to base your decisions on.

Our platform invests in cutting-edge technology and data verification methods to provide traders with the most precise and trustworthy pricing information available in real-time. Opening trading from 18:00:10 NY time (22:00:10 GMT) also ensures that even in the busiest or most volatile trading scenarios, all traders receive the most accurate and fair pricing information possible, maintaining market integrity. 

You can use any Equiti trading account to trade commodities on global markets. To open a trading account for commodity trading, complete the application form and submit your contact details, personal information, financial information and trading experience. You’ll also need to upload proof of identity and address for verification.

Once the application is complete and all appropriateness checks are valid, we’ll send you login details to our client portal and trading platform via email.

After your account is approved, you can deposit funds using your preferred method (bank transfer, credit card, etc.). Once your account is funded, you can log in to the trading platform and start trading.

Choosing the right account type depends on your experience and deposit size. Open a Standard account with deposits from $0 to enjoy zero commission. Alternatively, Premier accounts with deposits from $3,000 offer tight spreads starting from 0.0 pips*.

If you’re new to trading, you can practice with a Demo account before committing real funds. This allows you to familiarise yourself with the platform and improve your trading skills without risking any capital.

Commodity trading involves buying and selling assets derived from natural resources like energy or metals and agricultural products.

CFDs or Contracts for Difference are a popular way of trading commodities. Online commodities CFD trading allows individuals to speculate on the price movements of various commodities without directly owning the physical assets. Unlike traditional commodity trading, CFDs involve entering into a contract with a broker to exchange the price difference of a commodity from the contract's opening to its closing. 

This form of trading covers a wide range of commodities, including hard commodities that are mined (like oil, gold and gas) and soft commodities that are harvested (like coffee and sugar). 

CFDs are traded through online brokers or platforms. Traders create an account to access these platforms, select the commodities they want to trade and place buy or sell orders based on their expectations of future price changes. If their estimations are correct, they make a profit.

Commodities are generally classified into two main types based on their nature and how they are produced:

Hard commodities: These are natural resources that are mined or extracted from the earth. Examples include precious metals like gold and silver, energy resources like oil and natural gas, and industrial metals like copper.

Soft commodities: These are agricultural products or livestock. Examples include wheat, corn, coffee, cotton and livestock.

Commodities can also be grouped into three categories based on their characteristics:

Energy: Such as coal, crude oil and natural gas.

Agricultural: Such as sugar, coffee and cotton.

Metal: Such as gold, silver and platinum.