The US Gold Bureau is an organization through which you can buy and sell gold coins, gold bars and other precious metals. However, they are not just a money making organization. The United States Gold Bureau is an educational establishment that is there to teach people the intricacies and history of coins and precious metals. One thing that can be learned here is what spot pricing is, a term you may come across if you consider investing in precious metals.

A spot contract, the U.S. Gold Bureau explains, is a contract that exists when a commodity is bought or sold. Spots and spot transactions can only be used for currency transactions, settlements and securities. Usually, the spot date, to which the spot refers, is two business days after the day of trade. The spot price is the price at which you settled. This is not the same as a futures or forward contract. Here, terms are agreed but delivery is later.

Basically, the spot price shows the indication of how a price is going to move in the future. The US Gold Bureau explains that if you buy a share, the different between the forward and the spot should be the dividends that have to be paid, minus interest, as well as other costs. Anything else would be a riskless profit and would provide an opportunity for arbitrage. However, this isn't the case with soft commodities. Here, spot prices are set through supply and demand, the basis of all economics. Here, the price difference reflects how the price will change over a period of time, or how it is expected to change at least.

Next, the United States Gold Bureau teaches you about spot dates. As stated, the spot date is the settlement day if a transaction is done on a specific date. This is what is known as a spot. Depending on the financial transaction, the spot date can be very different. For instance, people buying and selling currency may find that the spot date is two banking days forward. Sometimes, the settlement is after the spot date. Here, the contract is called either a forward.

The issue of settlement date is very complicated, as the U.S. Gold Bureau explains. There are standard settlement dates, which are worked out from the spot date. A good example, staying with the foreign currency, is the settlement date being a full month after the spot date. So, this would mean that if you start your transaction today, your spot date will be two business days after that and your settlement date another month after that. At times, trades have two separate date. In those cases, the first of the different dates is classed as the spot date.