The Global Commodity TradFi Spread Index
Independent quarterly research on bid-ask spread transparency across gold, silver, and crude oil trading platforms worldwide.
What is GCTSI?
GCTSI measures the bid-ask spread efficiency of gold, silver, and crude oil across major traditional finance (TradFi) and crypto-native trading platforms. The index provides an independent, data-driven benchmark that allows traders, researchers, and regulators to compare the true cost of execution across different venues.
Bid-ask spreads are one of the most significant — yet frequently opaque — costs in commodity trading. While brokers and exchanges compete on headline features such as leverage ratios and fee schedules, the spread a trader actually pays at execution often tells a different story. GCTSI exists to quantify that story with transparent, quarterly data.
The index is constructed from real-time spread observations collected by ThePriceChart.com, an independent market monitoring platform. Each quarterly report analyzes typical and peak-hour spreads across nine platforms, spanning regulated forex brokers, ECN providers, and cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges that offer commodity-pegged perpetual contracts.
Latest Report: Q1 2026
In Q1 2026, GCTSI analyzed bid-ask spreads for XAUUSD, XAGUSD, and USOIL across nine platforms. Key findings include the continued tightening of gold spreads on ECN-model brokers, with Exness recording typical spreads as low as 0.2 points per troy ounce. Crypto-native exchanges showed competitive but wider spreads, reflecting structural differences in USDT-settled perpetual contracts versus traditional CFD instruments.
The report introduces a new Platform Spread Efficiency Ranking, placing platforms on a standardized scale that accounts for both typical and peak-hour widening behavior.
Read the Full Q1 2026 Report →
Covered Assets
- XAUUSD — Gold vs. US Dollar. The world's most traded precious metal pair, used as a benchmark for safe-haven demand and inflation hedging.
- XAGUSD — Silver vs. US Dollar. A higher-volatility precious metal pair with significant industrial demand alongside investment flows.
- USOIL — WTI Crude Oil. The primary benchmark for North American crude oil pricing, widely traded via CFDs and futures-linked perpetual contracts.
Covered Platforms
GCTSI tracks spread data across nine platforms, selected to represent a cross-section of the global commodity trading landscape:
- Regulated Forex Brokers: IG, Exness, FXCM
- Crypto Exchanges: Bybit, OKX, Bitget, Flipster, Binance, CoinEx
Platform selection criteria and methodology are detailed on the Methodology page.
Data Source
All spread data published by GCTSI is sourced from ThePriceChart.com, an independent market monitoring platform that tracks real-time bid-ask spreads, funding rates, and price discrepancies across brokers and exchanges. ThePriceChart.com operates independently of GCTSI and is not affiliated with any of the platforms monitored.
Research Lead
GCTSI research is led by Zhan He, a PhD Candidate in Business Administration at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), specializing in financial market microstructure and commodity trading cost analysis. The research group operates independently with no commercial relationships with the platforms it covers.
For questions about the index methodology or published reports, see the About page.