GBE Prime started offering gold trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week today (Wednesday), the institutional liquidity provider said. The service is available to professional clients, including brokers, banks, asset managers and funds.Weekend access gives brokerages another way to manage client exposure while standard spot and futures venues are closed. It also adds GBE Prime to a market that already includes several wholesale 24/7 gold products.GBE Targets Brokers and Professional ClientsThe company said the service runs on its distributed data center infrastructure and is available with FIX API connectivity. GBE Prime did not disclose contract size, leverage, spreads, exposure limits or scheduled maintenance windows."Our clients require greater flexibility in accessing Gold," Executive Director Mahmoud Haj Mohamad said.[#highlighted-links#]GBE Prime described the product as Gold (XAU), but the release did not specify whether it is a CFD, a perpetual contract or another over-the-counter instrument. The distinction matters. It affects how positions are priced and managed when the main underlying markets are shut.Wholesale Providers Fill the Weekend GapScope Prime completed the rollout of its DIGIXAU institutional gold CFD in March. In June, Match-Prime added continuous CFDs on gold, silver, oil and two US equity indices for broker clients.Retail platforms have moved in the same direction. Vantage introduced XAUUSD247 in July with a one-ounce contract and leverage of up to 100:1.VT Markets followed in August with the same symbol, contract size and maximum leverage, subject to account and regional conditions. Its advertised minimum weekend spread was 2.67 times its weekday level.The institutional market also includes LMAX Group's gold perpetual futures. CME Group began 24/7 trading in its cash-settled one-ounce gold futures in July, providing an exchange-traded and centrally cleared alternative to OTC products.Weekend Pricing Remains the Missing DetailTraditional gold markets still have closed periods, so off-hours prices may rely on a provider's own methodology. GBE Prime did not identify its reference venues, price-discovery process or weekend liquidity sources.Pricing is the issue. A liquidity provider must keep quoting while the usual hedging venues are unavailable, leaving its price controls and risk limits to carry more of the load.Those details can determine spreads, slippage and hedging costs when liquidity is thinner. CMC Markets also withheld pricing and margin terms when it introduced its Gold Weekend product in April.GBE Prime is a brand of GBE Global Ltd, which is authorized by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority under license SD176. Its website says the service is exclusively for professional clients and is not directed at retail clients.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.