related also:

Platinum Futures Trading - Historical Platinum

Platinum Futures Market Facts

For both speculating and hedging the platinum futures contract is a legally binding commitment to accept delivery of the metal at an agreed upon futures price. (knowing that platinum position traders do change positions, such as from short to long or from long to short, before the appointed delivery date).

The greyish-silver precious metal, platinum (derived from ‘platina’ translated as ‘little silver’ in spanish) is indeed extremely rare. It is part of the Platinum metals group that includes palladium, iridium, rhodium, osmium and Ruthenium. And can be found with copper and nickel ore mineral deposits.

The rare metal has corrosion, tarnish and wear resistant properties along with special capabilities as a catalyst.

Which is important, since Platinum is indeed so scarce, it is used only for those applications for which it is uniquely advantageous. These applications include: fuel cells and certain automobile parts/exhaust and catalytic converters, high end jewelry, electrical parts, medical implants and restorative dentistry. Platinum catalysts are in use in the refinement of crude oil and for producing high octane gas. Possible applications may involve chances at improving fuel cells.

World production: The main sources of platinum are few and among their rank is South Africa, Russia and the United States. While meteorites and the moon are known to contain significant amounts of future platinum, it remains to be seen whether this could reasonably be mined and refined.

Futures are traded on the NYMEX. An alternative might be funds at the London Platinum and Palladium Market as a traded fund. Another possible investment vehicle for platinum is in coins.

The exchanges do places limits, known as set position limits, on the maximum number of futures contracts a trader can hold. Taking into account whether the trader is a speculator or a hedger. Which helps maintain orderly markets.

Position traders of platinum hold contracts for a number of trading sessions. Day traders, hold position in a day. Scalpers manage to operate in single sessions.