Calculating the market capitalisation of the gold market is not as straightforward as it is for the equity market. Given that all the gold that had ever been mined by the end of 2006 is estimated at around 158,000 tonnes, and given the 2006 annual average price of US$ 603.77 per troy ounce, above-ground stocks of gold are worth over three trillion US dollars (one tonne being equivalent to 32,151 troy ounces). But the extent to which all of this gold can be considered “free float” is debatable. Some analysts consider that up to 86 per cent of global above-ground inventory could theoretically be mobilised in a relatively short space of time this equates to around US$ 2.6 trillion, based on the 2006 average gold price.

Last year, the value of gold demand totalled $65.4 billion, based on the annual average USD price. This includes all jewelry, industrial and identifiable investment demand, which is mainly coins, bars and exchange-traded funds. However, this understates the true value of annual flows as many transactions are not recorded in the investment statistics, such as OTC trades with the bullion banks.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission publishes data on gold futures and options on a weekly basis. These statistics cover both CBOT and COMEX data but do not cover futures and options traded on other exchanges such as the Tokyo Commodities Exchange, the Dubai Commodities Exchange, the Shanghai Gold Exchange or due to CFTC rules. The chart below shows the net long non-commercial positions in gold futures as published by the CFTC of gold futures contracts (net long non-commercial positions) traded on Comex between 1995 and 2007, overlaid with the gold price for the same period, indicating a relatively strong positive relationship between the two variables.

Net long non-commercial positions, COMEX and CBOT futures and gold price