correct the Comex offers 'paper gold' - meaning, a Contract of sale for gold, typically with a one moth commitment date you place a deposit if you havent sold your gold option back into the pool by maturation date, you are obliged to pay the remainder and accept delivery of the underlying asset (gold bars) but of course, bc ppl borrow money to invest and make these deposits, there is very little pay-the-balance-and-take the-physical going on.  over 99% of trades made on the comex are simply buy contracts, sell contracts back at a hopefully higher price  on top of this, the Comex has been deceitfully 'rehypothecating' (replicating) its inventory  ergo, 100 investors might all believe they have a claim to the same one gold bar. So long as no -one takes delivery and they all sell their contracts before the maturation date, no-one is the wiser this is how they have manipulated the price of gold and silver, keeping it (and inflation / loss of faith in fiat) artificially capped