A metals trader needs three things: capital to trade with, charts to read, and a trusted place to own the metal itself. This page is the short list behind the DecisionFramework desk. No paid placements: a tool is here because it does the job, not because it pays.
Trade it
My Funded Futures: the best prop firm in my view
An end-of-day drawdown, no daily loss limit and daily payouts once funded. The plan I pick for gold, silver and oil futures. Why, with the rules and the catches →
CLUBRead it
TradingView
The charts on every desk page, and the data behind the nightly closes. Ichimoku, EMA crosses and multi-timeframe work in one place.
DecisionFramework Private Client
Levels Watch, crack spreads, the Shanghai premium, the Hormuz Tracker, the Session Clock and the 1-hour EMA state, updated every evening.
Own it
BullionStar: the best dealer I have found
Out of seventeen dealers and vaults across Europe, the Gulf and Asia, judged on the same six questions, BullionStar came out on top. Gold and silver with storage in its own vaults in Singapore, the US and New Zealand, which you can audit yourself. Storage from 0.39% a year, buy and sell prices both published, and a “no-spread” 100 g bar it buys back at the price it sells it (10 bars or more, held at least four days). Customers in 115 countries.
BullionVault: own a share of professional bars
BullionVault is not a typical dealer. It runs a live 24/7 order board where private investors buy and sell fractions of large professional bars (400 oz gold, 1,000 oz silver) with each other, close to wholesale prices, instead of buying coins or small bars at a dealer premium. The metal is allocated to you and held in professional vaults in Zurich, London, Toronto, Singapore or New York, at the vault you choose.
The cheapest storage of all seventeen I compared: 0.12% a year for gold, 0.48% for silver, platinum and palladium (minimums apply). Trading commission 0.50%, falling to 0.05% for large volumes. Where BullionStar is the dealer for coins, bars and delivery, BullionVault is the low-cost way to hold metal you may want to sell quickly.
The dealer directory
Dealers, mints and vaults by region and country, with the questions to ask before you buy: buyback, storage, and who really holds the metal.
How the scores work
Dealers and vaults are scored on the same six questions, each out of 10: are prices shown, what does a round trip cost, how fair is the buyback, what does storage cost and how is it held, how is the company regulated and set up, and what do customers say. Sixteen dealers were scored in September 2026; BullionVault was added on 11 October 2026 on the same basis. The scores are my own judgement from published information, not paid placements, and they change when the facts do.
How links work here
Some links on this page reward me when you use them. Each one says so next to the button, and says what the reward is. A reward never decides whether a tool is listed: I chose each one on how it works before I had a link. Companies that want to be featured can get in touch; a featured listing will always be marked as such.
Educational content, not financial advice. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss; prop-firm evaluations are fee-based and most participants do not pass.