Fastmarkets AMM Pricing Methodology
A number of people in the metal industry rely on our price assessments and indices to empower their business decisions everyday. When you purchase a data license, you can then input our prices into contracts, reports and calculations. We take this responsibility very seriously, and seize every opportunity to provide an explanation of how we, as a price reporting agency, provide this trustworthy data. Fastmarkets AMM methodologies are published and made accessible to ensure our price reporting process is fully transparent.
Why is Fastmarkets AMM data trustworthy?
Rigorous pricing procedure
Fastmarkets AMM reporters are required to follow robust pricing procedures, clearly defined methodologies, and clear-cut price specifications during their market reporting and pricing sessions. The Fastmarkets AMM price assessment process is aligned to core IOSCO principles
Independent market perspective
Fastmarkets AMM has no affiliation or bias, and has no vested commercial interest in any of the markets it prices. Price assessments are representative of the market and reflective of both buyers & sellers. Using multiple sources of pricing will reveal other providers who are consistently high (perhaps slanted to producers) or consistently low (perhaps slanted to consumers).
Current with industry standards
Fastmarkets AMM continually develops and revises its methodologies in consultation with industry participants. If there are changes in the industry, Fastmarkets AMM will revise or adopt product specifications, trading terms, conditions or other factors that reflect and are representative of typical working practices in the industry. All methodologies, changes, revisions, adaptations or other are approved by Fastmarkets AMM’s editor and senior management.
Adherences to strict, monitored regulations
Fastmarkets AMM’s reporters are required to follow a Code of Conduct by forbidding employees from brokering, accepting bribes, publishing defamatory news, etc.
Confidentiality
Markets are assessed by experienced Fastmarkets AMM staff each day, via phone calls, emails, texts, etc. to a wide variety of market participants on both sides of the transaction. Fastmarkets AMM treats all communications of price, assessments, contract details and all other information as classified and details are never shared with third parties.
Verification and peer-review of pricing
All work by Fastmarkets AMM reporters is peer-reviewed and approved prior to publication by upper management. Reported transactions are verified by counterparties, highs and lows are evaluated for accuracy and price experts “mark” the market using their judgment and expertise in analyzing the data collected. Prices are managed and delivered by a proprietary and state-of-the-art price management system called M.I.N.D.
Two core methodologies
Both methodologies aim to produce a price reference representative of where the bulk of the SPOT market is at a specified time.
> Assessments: the bulk of our prices; they can be a single number or a spread/range of reported representative business.
> Indexes: single number, a volume-weighted average of transaction data. Methodology generally employed in comparatively liquid market.
View our price assessment process
Methodology Resources:
View our Methodology Review and Change Consultation Process, here
View our Data Submitter Policy, here
View our Corrections and New Pricing Launch Procedures, here
View our Complaint policy, here
View our Code of Conduct, here
View our global holiday pricing calendar, here
Our Mission:
Fastmarkets is a leading commodity price reporting agency (PRA) covering the metals, mining, minerals and forestry products industries. Our products include Metal Bulletin (Fastmarkets MB), American Metal Market (Fastmarkets AMM), RISI, FOEX and Industrial Minerals (Fastmarkets IM). For more than 100 years we have been providing commodities price reporting services for use by market participants in their day-to-day commercial activities. These services include assessments and indices of commodity prices as well as news, research and commentary on the underlying markets.
Our mission is to meet the market’s data requirements honestly and independently, acting with integrity and care to ensure that the trust and confidence placed in the reliability of our pricing methodologies is maintained. We do not have a vested interest in the markets on which we report.
The world’s largest dedicated metals price reporting team with offices in London, New York, Pittsburgh, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Melbourne, Singapore, Mumbai, CIS, Istanbul, and 5 other US locations.