XAUUSD Trading Guide

A standard lot is 100 ounces, not 100,000 units. Sizing gold like a currency pair is how accounts get hurt.

HomePairsXAU/USD

XAU/USD (gold) at a glance

Contract size and pip size are market conventions and are the same figures the calculators on this site use.

SymbolXAUUSD
InstrumentGold
Quote currencyUSD — US dollar
Pip size0.10
Standard lot100 ounces
Pip value, 1.00 lot$10.00
Pip value, 0.10 lot$1.00
Pip value, 0.01 lot$0.10
Quoted to2 decimal places
Active sessionsLondon, New York

Pip values are shown for an account held in US dollars. On an account in another currency the amount is converted at the rate of the day, which the pip value calculator does for you.

When XAU/USD is in session

London08:00 – 17:00 London time
New York08:00 – 17:00 New York time

These are the business hours of the financial centres where London and New York trade. Session times shift through the year with daylight saving. The live session clock shows what is open right now in your own time zone.

What moves it

Releases and decisions that concern the gold or the US dollar:

  • US CPI
  • FOMC rate decision
  • Non-Farm Payrolls
  • US real yields
  • CPI inflation
  • retail sales

Rate decisions come from the Federal Reserve. Dates and times for all of these are on the economic calendar, which is updated from the published schedule.

Costs on XAU/USD

Spread, commission and swap are set by your broker, not by the market, and they differ by account type and by the hour. No single figure would be true for most readers, so none is given here.

The broker directory lists what each firm advertises, attributed and dated, and the spread cost calculator turns whatever your broker charges into money for a given position size.

XAU/USD questions

What is one pip worth on XAU/USD?

One pip on a standard lot of XAU/USD is $10.00, because a pip is 0.10 and a standard lot is 100 ounces. A mini lot is $1.00 and a micro lot is $0.10. Those figures hold when the account is in US dollars; in any other currency the amount is converted at the rate of the day.

How big is one lot of XAU/USD?

A standard lot is 100 ounces, a mini lot is 10 and a micro lot is 1. This is the part traders get wrong: metals do not use the 100,000 unit contract that currency pairs use.

Why is XAU/USD quoted to 2 decimal places?

Metals are quoted per ounce, so the price carries fewer decimals than a currency pair. A pip on XAU/USD is taken as 0.10.

When does XAU/USD actually move?

London and New York are the sessions where the currencies in this pair have their home markets open: 08:00 – 17:00 London time, 08:00 – 17:00 New York time. That is a statement about which centres are trading, not a promise about volatility on any particular day. The live session clock shows which one is open right now.

What spread should I expect on XAU/USD?

That depends entirely on your broker, your account type and the time of day, so no honest single number exists. The broker directory here lists what each firm advertises, taken from its own site and dated, and the spread cost calculator turns a spread into money for a given position size.

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