CME now has "Delivery friendly " 4GC contracts! but can't see volume https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/metals/precious/gold-enhanced-delivery.html
Where would you like me to deliver your pork bellies?? Pork Bellies Contracts Currently, the CME lists Lean Hog (HE) futures, which represent the prices paid for live hogs, where each contract represents 40,000 pounds of meat. The contracts are quoted in cents per pound with a minimum tick size of $10.00.5 Lean Hog futures are cash-settled.
I've seen some people purchasing gold this way with gold futures and going there and fetching the gold. One would save serval percentages on the spread the retail dealers got on coins or bars.
The idea is that Banks like JP Morgan just take delivery between NY and London..which, of course, is not delivery of futures at all. But they are doing this because sovereign fund buyers on behalf of central banks and foreign Banks and Wealth Groups are actually taking full delivery by cargo planes and the US is kinda panic. There prolly is only about .08 percent of actual gold in USA ..compared to the futures contracts sold on the CME. And physical gold is currently looked upon as generally undervalued. I am not sure USA gold futures markets will allow an actual international physical gold true pricing. So..physical delivery is very rewarding. The USD is very valuable within the USA itself..but gold is very valuable in the rest of the world..as a USD/Gold cross. JP Morgan is taking delivery from London to fulfill physical delivery demands on its futures that have been sold. It will be interesting to see if Goldman is forced into this action as well. And with Trade wars, Nationalism, Isolationism, Tariffs, Sanctions...there is huge increases in withdrawing foreign Reserves and replacing this with Gold Reserves. If USA sanctions and places Tariffs on all Trade..there is less and less need to hold USD based Foreign reserves for trade. With Nationalism..the USD is more of a weapon than anything else. It will trade high because there is less actual USD international trading and much more internal hoarding and internal flight to USD with uncertainty...especially with Treasures unwanted. Majority of Treasuries used to be bought by foreign countries. Its a full unwinding. Similar to a Carry Trade unwinding.
Many years ago I was going to try to deliver on a short corn contract. I learned that the exchange discourages physical deliveries and expects to be notified well ahead of time. Just letting the contract expire is considered rude.
For commodity futures contracts settled by physical delivery, the answer is yes, a participant can stand for delivery. The threat of making or taking delivery is crucial to the price discovery process. Without the ability to take delivery, price becomes meaningless.