The market for structured products is dominated by institutional investors - or, in the case of forwards, by gold market professionals - because the minimum investment can be high. The following is a general overview of what these products are like and how they work.

Like futures, forward contracts are agreements to exchange an underlying asset - in this case, gold - at an agreed price at some future date. They can therefore be used either to manage risk or for speculative purposes. But there are important differences between forwards and options traded in the over-the-counter (OTC) gold market on the one hand, and futures and options traded on one of the exchanges on the other:

Gold-linked bonds are available from the world's largest bullion dealers and investment banks. Their products provide investors with some combination of:

Structured notes tend to allocate part of the sum invested to purchasing put/call options (depending on whether the product is designed for gold bulls or bears). The balance is invested in traditional fixed income products, such as the money market, to generate a yield. They can be structured to provide capital protection and a varying degree of participation in any price appreciations depending on market conditions and investor preferences.