What is gold futures?

What it means

The COMEX contract is the venue where most institutional gold price discovery happens, and spot XAUUSD tracks it closely. The two differ by the cost of carry, which produces a small and predictable basis rather than any meaningful divergence.

Why it matters

Futures are exchange-cleared with published volume and open interest, which spot CFDs are not. That transparency is genuinely useful context — futures positioning data describes what large participants are doing, and no equivalent exists for the retail CFD market.

What this changes in practice

For US-based traders the distinction is not academic. Retail access to spot gold CFDs is restricted in the United States, so futures and futures options are among the routes actually available — one of several reasons the US audience for an MT5 gold bot is largely prop-firm traders. See can US traders use MT5 trading bots.