Asian Review of Financial Research Vol.39 No.2 pp.125-157
https://www.doi.org/10.37197/ARFR.2026.39.2.5
When the Law of One Price Fails within an Exchange : Evidence from KRX Gold and Mini-Gold
Key Words : Gold market,International parity deviations,Limit of arbitrage,State-dependent liquidity,Within-exchange price dispersion
Abstract
This paper studies within-exchange price dispersion between gold and mini-gold in Korea Exchange (KRX). Although the two products are claims on the same underlying commodity, trade on the same centralized exchange, are quoted in the same currency, and are traded in identical one-gram increments, mini-gold nevertheless trades at persistent discounts relative to gold. Using the full trading history of KRX mini-gold, I show that mini-gold discounts are strongly state dependent with respect to international parity deviations: when domestic gold trades below the international benchmark, the probability of a mini-gold discount rises sharply. I further show that domestic frictions explain the depth of the wedge. Relative illiquidity and mini-gold trading inactivity are both associated with wider spreads, and the pricing of illiquidity is materially stronger in discount states. These results are robust to alternative proxies based on relative participation and OHLC-implied intraday roughness. Taken together, the evidence supports a nested limits-to-arbitrage interpretation in which international dislocations affect the incidence of discount states, while domestic liquidity and participation frictions determine the magnitude of within-exchange price dispersion.










