Fun things to do in London’s Financial heartland No.1: Going on Exchange
Last week I took a London-based NGO to the London Metal Exchange. We’re kind of concerned about some issues around commodity speculation , so thought it would be worth a visit. To be fair, I sometimes go with my friend Harry just for fun, because it’s such a darn unique curiosity. If you ever want to do it, go to the LME website, fill in the booking form and send it to them. Why would you want to go there? Because it’s the largest global exchange in industrial metals, and that makes it an interesting node in the matrix of global trade. It mostly deals with metal derivatives (futures and options contracts for future delivery of metal), but trade in physical metals for immediate delivery also occurs. I spoke to a trader outside when he was having a smoke, and he said that if you deal in the physical ‘spot’ contracts, you’ll have metal waiting for you in a warehouse within two days. The real choice is what metal you want...