Fixing the fix for silver and gold

Accusations of price manipulation in the silver and gold markets have emerged in recent years. In an effort to increase transparency, the London spot price “fixing” mechanism was recently changed from an opaque negotiation process among a small number of dealer banks to a more observable auction platform system with more participants and public reporting. This change in the price fixing process raises questions about whether manipulation was occurring prior to the fix change and whether any perceived manipulation has since been reduced. Our results suggest that the changes to the price fixing process have impacted volatilities and prices within the silver and gold markets which could be an indicator of manipulation prior to the change.