One of the worldÂ’s oldest known commodities and the worldÂ’s third most widely used metal, after iron and aluminum. It is used in highly cyclical industries such as construction and industrial machinery manufacturing, which ties its price direction to the state of the world economy. Chile is the worldÂ’s largest copper producer.

The largest futures and options market for copper is the London Metal Exchange (LME), where a variety of copper contracts trade. Three-months copper is the benchmark issue. The name “three-month” comes from the delay that it took to ship copper mined in Chile to London when trading began on the LME. The forerunner to the LME was the Royal Exchange that began in 1571 when metals traders first began to meet on a regular basis. In 1877, the London Metal Market and Exchange Company was formed as a direct result of Britain’s industrial revolution of the 19th century.

Copper futures also are traded on the Comex Division of the New York Mercan-tile Exchange, where the trading symbol is HG, as well as on other exchanges around the world.