Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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Questions:

  1. Why isn't the LME Cash price changing?
  2. What is the Midwest Aluminum Premium?
  3. How do you collect your prices?
  4. Why is the Realtime price feed not always up to the minute?
  5. What are the services you provide? (description of site)
  6. Why can't I login with my username and password?
  7. How can I pay for a subscription?
  8. How can I sign up for a Realtime trial?
  9. I just signed up for a real time trial but cannot see the prices?
  10. Why can I only see yesterdays prices?
  11. Why does it say my username is already in use?

Why isn’t the LME Cash price changing?
This is a common misunderstanding about how the LME works. The cash contract is updated only twice daily and does not fluctuate during trading hours because it is not actively traded. Only the future months are actively traded and the 3 month contracts receive the highest volume and are most likely to show a current time stamp during trading hours.  If you click on the bottom of the nickel feed screen (for example) where it says “Spread Feeds” you will see the difference between cash and three month. This is updated more frequently and can be used to calculate the cash equivalent.

What is the Midwest Aluminum Premium?
 The Midwest Aluminum Premium is the cost of freight and handling to ship aluminum from LME warehouses to the Midwest USA. If you are a registered user click here to see the latest Midwest Aluminum Premium price 

How do you collect your prices? (i.e., Moly Oxide, Cobalt, Chrome etc.)
 We establish prices for metals not publicly traded by interviewing sellers and buyers. This requires a cooperative effort wherein we depend on the metals community to participate. The staff at Metalprices.com must evaluate the reliability of price contributors and then make a judgment about the final low and high price range to publish. Since we started in 1995 , we've identified (and have continued to grow) a list of reliable price contributors who believe accuracy is in the best interest of all parties - both buyers and sellers.  We gather prices from multiple contributors until the final price range is clear to us.  Prices are published as quickly as possible; however, accuracy will remain our first priority. Consequently, there may be times we'll have to delay the publication of a price until we're confident it is correct.  When a metal becomes "hot"  we may randomly  publish tables titled "Spot Price" outside the normal schedule. All tables and charts contain titles and footers with exact descriptions of location, quantity, quality, and  the category of metal buyer represented. 

Why is the Realtime price feed not always up to the minute?

1)    Current time stamps occur primarily during active trading hours.  To see the LME trading schedule click here.  To see the NYMEX/COMEX trading schedule click here.

2)   To guarantee you are displaying the most current time stamp click on your browsers refresh button. This will collect the most current data available. Otherwise the Realtime page is set to automatically refresh every 2 minutes.

3)    During certain times of the day only electronic trading may be occurring. You can switch your view to electronic trading at the bottom of every feed screen.

4)      Metalprices.com is dependent on signals sent from the LME and COMEX, If you feel there is a problem with the feed please submit an e-mail we will forward to the Exchange.

What are the services you provide? (description of site)

Metalprices.com is designed to be a metal pricing utility. The service is specifically targeted to anyone responsible for tracking the raw material value of any metal product. Industries we target are mining producers, steel mills, foundries, service centers, fabricators, forge shops, machine shops, and scrap processors. Our primary function is to publish prompt accurate metal prices in a useful format.

Metalprices.com is a licensed vendor for the LME and NYMEX / COMEX. Metal prices are displayed  in a variety of formats including:

Current Snapshots
Historical Database
Charts (Graphs)
PDA screens 
Cell Phone Text Messages
Daily or Weekly Push E-Mail
Daily Summaries
Ticker

News Articles
News articles are supplied by Futuresource and OsterDowJones and include a five times daily analysis direct from the trading floor. Key articles are hand selected by our staff throughout the day and segregated by metal. For example, the copper main page contains only copper news and analysis. 

Alloy Calculator ©
     Look up chemistries for common alloys. 
     Display the current price of valuable elements.
     Calculate the “virgin” or “intrinsic” total value.
     Select a scrap discount percentage and calculate scrap value.
     Change chemistries and values to easily re-calculate.

We recommend you take a look at our Site Preview to fully understand our service.

To contact us for a guided tour or ask additional questions:
    1) USA Phone 970-927-8595
    2) SKYPE Telephony ID Metal_Gearman
    3) MSN Messenger ID    Metal_Gearman

Why can’t I login with my username and password?

1) Your paid subscription may have expired – click here to see your subscription expiration date  or go to our renew page.

2) Your username and password can be used on only one computer at a time.

3) Your username or password may be incorrect. Try "starting fresh"  by closing your browser completely and reopening it.  Type www.metalprices.com in the address area - do not use bookmarks or favorites. Once there, click on Log In and type in your username and password as they appear above, you can also cut & paste, but do not let your computer type these in for you.  You should get in at this point.  If you do not and are on a company network it may be a security setting that requires you to contact your network administrator.  To test this try logging in on a computer that is not on a network, perhaps from your home or an internet cafe.

4) You may need to change your security settings in your browser.  The exact steps to do this depend on your browser and version, but for IE, security/privacy is found under the Tools menu->Internet Options.   Please attempt to set your security to medium or low, then close your browser, and attempt to log in again.   If that does not work try the following: Change your IE (Microsoft Internet Explorer) security settings  as follows:

Open browser
Select  'Tools" from the top menu bar
Select 'Internet Options '
Select security tab
Click on the button at the bottom labeled ' Custom Level '
Scroll to the bottom and select 'prompt for username and password '
OK - your way out. Close browser and try to login again

5) If your internet page address (url) says nickelalloy.com replace it with metalprices.com.  Our old site name - nickelalloy.com can create problems and should be removed from your bookmarks.  You can set up new bookmarks using the name Metalprices.com

6) If you are still unable to login in, please email us at support@metalprices.com and provide the following information:

- Your Username and password.
- Your computer's operating system and browser type and version.
- When (if ever) was the last time you were able to log in successfully?  
- Have you recently installed new software?
- Are you on a computer network?   Does it have a firewall and/or proxy server?
- Are you able to log in from a different computer on the same network?
- Are you able to log in from a different computer outside your network?

 

How can I pay for a subscription?
1) If you are not already registered click here to begin the process.

2) Credit Card

Credit Card Online
Submit credit card by phone – USA 970-927-8595
Submit credit card by FAX    – USA 970-927-8597
Submit credit card by E-Mail – mailto:payment@metalprices.com
Credit card information which should include:
Username for Metalprices.com
Name of Person on Card
Complete Card Billing Address
Card #
Expiration date of card

3) Bank Transfer:
We will forward instructions if you choose this option and upgrade your account upon verification of wire sent.
Request Wire Instructions

4) Western Union:
 We will forward instructions if you choose this option and upgrade your account upon verification of western union sent. Request Western Union

5) Corporate Invoices:
Invoices are available for USA & Canadian Companies for payment by check in USD (and drawn in a US Bank).
Request Corporate Invoice

How can I sign up for a Realtime trial?
If you are a already a paid subscriber, go here and enter your username & password.  If you have not registered then contact us and we will set it up.

I just signed up for a real time trial but cannot see the prices?
Be sure to close your browser completely and re-log in.  The real time prices are located in the metal price feed screens located here  To verify you are seeing Realtime data the title in the feed screen should include the word “Realtime”

Why can I only see yesterdays prices?
1) Our front page www.Metalprices.com will only show yesterday's prices.  You must register and login to access today's prices.

2) Your browser may be caching (old versions of) the page.   You will need to delete all of the cached internet pages by purging your temporary internet files.  You can find this in your browser internet options (IE) or preferences (Netscape). Close the browser and try again.

3) Your network proxy server may also be caching the pages.   Please contact your network administrator and EXCLUDE www.Metalprices.com from any caching that may exist on your proxy server or firewall.

Why does it say my username is already in use?
1) Due to strict exchange regulations, we must limit access to one computer at a time per username.  To provide this security, we must use a cookie to associate your username with the computer you are currently using.

2) If you have recently accessed our site from another computer (or another browser on the same computer), please wait 10 minutes then try again.   As both our main metal and feed pages automatically refresh themselves, you must be sure to close any Metalprices.com pages on the previously used computer (home or office).

3) Your browser and network security settings must be set to allow cookies to be made.  For how to enable cookies for your specific browser, please go here.

4) If you suspect that someone else may be using your username and password, please change your password the next time your are able to login in order to prevent being locked out by another user. Or contact us at 970-927-8595 to change your password and allow immediate access.

5) There may be rare complications with our security and your specific network and computer settings that may prevent access.   Please contact us and we will work to provide a solution to allow immediate access.