If you’re here looking for a huge story, my apologies – I screwed up….with a little help from the clowns.

Wikipedia is already talking about  the London Gold Exchange in the past tense, after the closure notice appeared at the LGE site 11 hours ago. This thing IS called the London Gold Exchange, and it looks like it HAS closed for good.

But it seems that there were two mistakes in the original story. First, that the London Gold Exchange trades in gold. Silly me for making that booboo, eh? And second, that it is in any way important. I mean, the London Metals Exchange is enormous, but the Gold one is, to be blunt, a bit Bumweed, Cheap & Nasty. But the regulators allowed it to have that name. Surely not?

Founded in 2001, the London Gold Exchange was owned by LGE International LTD., an offshore company registered in Belize, with offices in London, England and Hong Kong. London Gold Exchange operated 2 franchises, one in the UK and one ‘International’ which covered everywhere other than the UK. The UK administration office was in Central London, with staff based in locations around the UK. The International administration office was in Hong Kong, with staff also operating from mainland China. Technical staff also operated from locations in Australia.

Important enough to be on Wikipedia, then. But a fairly familiar complicated ownership. Thanks go to Intelligentsia and Chris for deconstructing the bollocks on this one. My apologies again.

There is, however, still all sorts of stuff going on in the access-to-gold story.

The London Metal Exchange (no relation, I think) is exploring the idea of selling itself. Last Friday, the LME announced that it had received various expressions of interest.

Those thought to be in the chase include the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Both exchanges have been on an acquisition track. The CME, now described as the world’s largest futures exchange, finally won supremacy in US precious metals futures trading (and broadened its energy markets) when it acquired the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and its COMEX precious metals division in 2008. A number of Asian exchanges may also be interested in the LME. The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has been mentioned, in particular. The two exchanges have worked together to offer base metals futures.

This is relatively old news. But think on this:

The LME is owned by its 92 members (primarily banks and commodities brokers), and in a bid war, I estimate, it could be worth maybe £300M.

Gold is faltering, but the long-term trend is still solidly Bull.

Yesterday, the LME had its highest trading day in history.

Do the 92 owners know something we don’t? And is this all an astonishing string of coincidences, or is something going on in gold?

Stay tuned. And don’t believe a load of old bollocks you believe about Gold Exchanges closing. They are, but they don’t trade in gold. And it doesn’t matter anyway. So there.