real time spot price question

[Zincanator]

Thanks to the insight here and the resulting humble pile of silver I've accumulated, I've become fascinated with checking, then checking again, then checking again... the spot price of silver.

Why is it always several cents different depending on where on the internet you go for a quote (CNBC, online PM retailers, Coinflatioin, Kitco)? Not only price but also direction (up or down).

I'm used to watching US stock averages which are typically the same or very close all day long no matter where online you look.

[pennypicker]

I had the same frustration so months ago I posted a similar question on this board and most replies stated they use Kitco as their site for obtaining the most current spot silver price.

[theo]

The only thing I can think of is that some of these quoting services might be a minute or two behind. Being as little as 10 seconds behind can make a difference in this age of HFT, especially with an asset as erratic as silver.

[68Camaro]

I believe the above from theo is true - I've certainly seen timing differences just on Kitco between what they tabulate numerically vs what they show on their plots, so there is a time lag already at work there. I also believe that during some time periods there are multiple markets open at the same time, each of which might justifiably have slightly different prices. There is also a difference between the offer price (which isn't a real price unless someone accepts the offer and sells) and the sell price. Some of the reporting services might be selecting one or the other of these several numbers, or averaging a couple of them together.

Bottom line is that I don't have a definitive answer for how a specific service arrives at their reported prices, but I understand some of the reasons why they might not be identical. It would be worth finding out and reporting - we would all be interested if you get an answer.

[InfleXion]

Most coin shops I go to will use Kitco pricing, but I have noticed that thebulliondesk.com is almost always a few cents different than Kitco even though they both update in real time. I think it has to do with which exchanges they are using as their source of information.

[Jonflyfish]

The challenge of having a non-centralized, fragmented, OTC market for a fungible commodity. COMEX and the London Fix are where Kitco, LCS et al base their prices. There is no true price discovry for them. They piggyback the liquidity then arbitrarily add whatever spread people will tolerate.

Cheers!

[Zincanator]

Great responses, thanks. I guess they're not THAT far off of each other.

The fact that we're in a speed-of-light trades world makes sense too.

I quoted a few sources as fast as I could just now and here's the deviation:

Kitco $20.14 ask up 0.57
Coinflation $19.97 up 0.55
CNBC - $20.015 up 0.85
provident - $20.06 up 0.63
silvertowne $20.05 up 0.56

Does PM trading ever stop (like how the stock market has a specific open and close time)?