Learn how BullionVault works
Here we explain the basics of the BullionVault user interface. If you want to understand how you get better gold prices you should also check out our FAQs.
Our home page
The BullionVault 'Explained' screen
There are navigation links to the most commonly visited site areas. Press the menu bar buttons to go to other BullionVault screens.
The BullionVault menu bar
Order entry
Before looking at the different order boards it's worth getting the hang of the order details panel.
You'll need to be logged in to see the order details panel on the right side of your screen.
The Order DetailsClicks in many different places on screens cause order details to be automatically filled out with sensible guesses at what you want to do. This makes it very easy to fill out your orders, and often all you have to do is look carefully at the order we generate from your click, and confirm. |
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Confirming an orderYour order details are offered for your confirmation. Only when you confirm does your order get passed to the market for validation, matching and/or posting on the order board.
Explain : validation |
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Were you successful ?Don't rush off just yet! When you confirm an order one of three things could happen.
You need to read the response to see which one of these occurred. If you are not sure what has happened go and check your open orders on the orders menu. |
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The Order WizardThe wizard offers a different route to filling out your order. It lets you fix one variable in an order, and works out suggestions for the others. For example, you could set the wizard to 'fix my order value' setting it at $1,000. The wizard checks the market and sees how much you should bid for, and what price you should offer. Press the 'Suggest' button and the optimal results are displayed - if possible. If you like the suggestion you press 'Proceed' and the wizard drops you into the buy/sell panel, ready to trade and confirm. |
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The Order Board Screens
There are three main order board screens all accessed from the MARKETS menu, and they do the same job in different ways. You can choose your favourite, or use each of them in different circumstances. Each board summarises the orders which other users have entered, but which have not yet executed, and which are therefore being advertised.
When you're logged in they all have the order details panel on the right hand side.
Broadly what happens is when you click something on the order board (left side of screen) the system has a guess at what you mean to do and fills out the order details (right side). You get a one or two click order entry, which allows you to grab an opportunity as soon as it's displayed, usually without having to carefully type lots of stuff in.
When you submit an order we explain to you what your order details will achieve. You have to confirm this for us to proceed and process your order.
Market Order Board
Get there by pressing MARKETS and ORDER BOARD .
The BullionVault Market Order Board
The order board is where all competing users advertise their prices to you.
Remember, even though people using the system are often private individuals buying and selling their own gold, it is professional good delivery gold and it's already stored at Via Mat. It has all the guaranteed integrity of an accredited bullion market bar. BullionVault guarantees this so you are quite safe to deal with any other member.
The screen is arranged so that you can quickly see what the best available prices are (the ones on the buttons) and how much gold, in kilograms, can be traded at that price.
The prices are all quoted per kilogram to make for easy comparison, and they update every few seconds. The quantity you see is the maximum available at the price.
You can deal any amount up to that maximum, and if you want to deal more just increase the quantity on
your order. Then what can't immediately be dealt will be advertised at your limit price to people
who want to deal the other way - as a new quote on the board.
You can deal in any of three currencies, and in any of three vaults. That's why there are nine lines
of prices on the order board.
So - for example - if you want to use your deposited dollars to buy the cheapest gold in Zurich you simply
click the gold button on the line marked "$ Dollars / Zurich", and the system loads your order for you to
press the BUY/BID button and
CONFIRM .
Most people are interested mainly in one currency, or one vault. Setting the currency filter makes it much easier to compare prices in the currency of your choice.
Explain : the green and gold bricks
The system checks you have sufficient available resources to place your order. So when you buy from someone else's quote BullionVault has already checked they have enough gold to transfer to you at the instant of that trade. (You have to have enough money too!)
Because we give away a free introductory gram sometimes the best prices are in tiny quantities - irrelevant for serious users. If you find this just set the 'Min order size' box to something like 0.01 (this is kg), and press Go to filter out the learners.
Market Depth
Get there by pressing MARKETS and MARKET DEPTH .
This graphical representation of orders shows you how much gold you can buy at various prices.
The Market Depth Screen
A deeper market is one in which you can buy or sell more gold. The longer the yellow lines the more gold there is about hoping to be bought. The longer the green lines the more cash there is about, chasing gold.
The most competitive prices are only available for a limited quantity of gold, next to the middle grey line on the screen. As the terms improve for your prospective counterparties the quantity of gold you can trade (the depth) increases too. In other words if you'll pay a bit more you can buy more gold and if you'll accept a bit less you can sell more gold.
Pay particular attention to the cumulative and logarithmic scales of this graphic.
- The cumulative figure means that for each new price - away from the central grey strip - the depth includes all more competitively priced gold.
- The logarithmic scale means that each additional increment on the horizontal scale increases the market depth by 10. This allows the screen to show scales from a few grams to 100 kilograms.
This view can be a useful indicator of likely future price moves. The current price is what you can trade at now, but if this chart is predominantly yellow it shows lots of gold being offered, and not much cash being offered. The market is awash with gold at the current price. The chances are that the green (cash) being offered by buyers will run out before the yellow (bullion) being offered by sellers, indicating a likely price fall. Conversely if the chart is predominantly green - indicating the market is awash with cash - the suggestion is that the price will rise.
The result of clicking the appropriate horizontal bar is the filling of order details at a price sufficiently high to buy that quantity of gold, or sufficiently low to sell it.
Market Spread
Get there by pressing MARKETS and MARKET SPREAD . Explain "spread"
The Market Spread Screen
This screen gives a simple graphical representation of the price of gold in a given currency at different locations. The more competitive locations have narrower white gaps between bid and offer prices for gold.
For the cheapest gold click on the yellow bar with the leftmost (lowest) offer price, and for the highest selling price click on the rightmost green bar.
When you click the relevant order details are filled out to match exactly with the opportunity that's available. Not surprisingly when the white gaps slim down it can become a clicking race to pick up the bargain.
Remember, you can buy the gold in any location, but you can only sell it in the location(s) in which you have it available. Similarly you can sell your gold for any currency, but you can only buy it with a currency you have available. Don't worry too much though - if you click to trade against something you can't deliver (either for cash or for gold) the system rejects your order and no harm is done.
© BullionVault.com 2008 - Buy gold online at live gold prices.