Metals

Understanding and Pricing COMEX Gold Options

Metals Options at CME Group Cycle Months

As the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives Gold options settle into underlying futures contracts on a
marketplace, CME Group is where the world comes to manage cycle-month schedule. For example, a November options
risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global contract exercises into a December futures contract. Since
benchmark products across all major asset classes. The the December futures price is generally different from the
metals products offered on NYMEX and COMEX provide November futures price, the option must be valued with the
unique trading and hedging opportunities and include global December (Cycle Month) price in mind.
benchmarks for price discovery and risk management
opportunities. Options on metals futures products provide the Options Contract Month Underlying Gold Futures
liquidity, flexibility and market depth needed to achieve your January (F) Feb (G)
trading objectives, from the simple to the most sophisticated February (G) Feb (G)
of trading strategies. March (H) Apr (J)

April (J) Apr (J)

Delivery of Gold Options into a Futures Contract May (K) Jun (M)
One standard monthly option contract (OG) delivers into one
June (M) Jun (M)
futures contract. One Gold futures contract (GC) constitutes
July (N) Aug (Q)
a contract for delivery of 100 troy oz. of Gold to an Exchange-
August (Q) Aug (Q)
approved depository at a specific date in the future. One
September (U) Oct (V)
options contract would allow the buyer or assign the seller
October (V) Oct (V)
to take or give possession of one corresponding underlying
November (X) Dec (Z)
futures contract the specific date of each contract.
December (Z) Dec (Z)

COMEX Options Expiration Procedure

Gold options expire four business days prior to the end of the
month preceding the options contract month. If the expiration
day falls on a Friday or immediately prior to an Exchange
holiday, expiration will occur on the previous business
day. Settlement is based on the COMEX close at 1:30 p.m.
Eastern Time (ET). Abandonments and assignments must be
submitted to the Exchange by 4:30 p.m. ET. Notice of exercise
and abandonments are generally given by 8:00 p.m. ET.

How the world advances

Contract Specifications

Gold Options
Underlying Futures Gold Futures (GC)

Product Symbol OG

CME Globex Sunday – Friday 6:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. (5:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Chicago Time/CT) with a 45-minute break
Venue & Hours
CME ClearPort each day beginning at 5:15 p.m. (4:15 p.m. CT)
(All Times are
New York Time/ET) Open Outcry Monday – Friday 8:20 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. (7:20 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT)

Contract Unit One COMEX Gold futures contract

Price Quotation U.S. dollars and cents per troy ounce.

Option Style American

Minimum Fluctuation $0.10 per troy ounce

Expiration occurs four business days prior to the end of the month preceding the option contract month. If the expiration day falls on a Friday or
Expiration of Trading
immediately prior to an Exchange holiday, expiration will occur on the previous business day.

Gold futures options shall be listed for trading in each of the nearest twenty (20) consecutive futures contract months. In addition, June and
Listed Contracts
December will be listed for 72 months from the current listed month.

Strike Prices Strike prices shall be in increments per troy ounce of gold for all trading months as described in Chapter 115 of the NYMEX Rulebook.

Settlement Type Physical

Delivery may take place on any business day beginning on the first business day of the delivery month or any subsequent business day of the
Delivery Period
delivery month, but not later than the last business day of the current delivery month.

Grade and Quality

Gold delivered under this contract shall assay to a minimum of 995 fineness.
Specifications

Rulebook Chapter 115

*These contracts are listed with, and subject to, the rules and regulations of COMEX.

For more information on our suite of gold products, please visit cmegroup.com/gold, or
contact a member of our metals team:

New york London Singapore

Miguel Vias Anindya Boral Michelle Zhang
+1 212 299 2358 +44 20 3379 3738 + 65 6593 5586
miguel.vias@cmegroup.com anindya.boral@cmegroup.com michelle.zhang@cmegroup.com

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Globex are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks
of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. New York Mercantile Exchange and NYMEX are registered trademarks of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc.

The information within this fact card has been compiled by CME Group for general purposes only. Although every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information within this brochure, CME Group
assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. Additionally, all examples in this brochure are hypothetical situations, used for explanation purposes only, and should not be considered investment advice or
the results of actual market experience.

All matters pertaining to rules and specifications herein are made subject to and are superseded by official CME, CBOT and NYMEX rules. Current rules should be consulted in all cases concerning contract specifications.

FUTURES: Futures trading is not suitable for all investors, and involves the risk of loss. Futures are a leveraged investment, and because only a percentage of a contract’s value is required to trade, it is possible
to lose more than the amount of money deposited for a futures position. Therefore, traders should only use funds that they can afford to lose without affecting their lifestyles. And only a portion of those funds
should be devoted to any one trade because they cannot expect to profit on every trade. All examples in this brochure are hypothetical situations, used for explanation purposes only, and should not be considered
investment advice or the results of actual market experience.

© 2012 CME Group. All rights reserved. MT907/00/0712