Gold Trading and other precious metals, along with crude oil, copper or petroleum, are hard commodities that play a major role in the commodities market. The intermediary that enables futures contracts to be negotiated is the futures exchange, or commodity, market. Investors worldwide can access about 50 major commodity markets, with precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium as the leading tradable assets due to their high economic value and durability. While Asia is the worldwide largest precious metals market (China, India and Singapore being the top consumers of these commodities), the commodities market is dominated by European and American corporations, with the biggest precious metals companies based in Canada and Germany.