Trading Gold (XAUUSD): Contract, Lot Value, Margin, Hours and Volatility
Before trading gold: ounces per lot, what a 1-dollar move is worth, margin used, what moves gold, when it moves in Thai time, and real spread costs.
- One lot of gold is usually 100 ounces. At 0.01 lot, a 1-dollar price move makes or loses 1 dollar
- Brokers count gold points and pips differently. Think in dollars of price distance and you can't go wrong
- Gold tends to react to the dollar, real interest rates, market fear and US data. These are tendencies, not fixed rules
- Gold's price has changed a lot, so distances set in dollars or points quietly change meaning. Use % of price instead
- A system that works on gold does not necessarily work on currency pairs. Test every market separately
Gold (XAUUSD) is one of the most traded instruments among Thai traders. It moves a lot, it trades almost 24 hours, and everyone knows the name. But gold does not behave like a currency pair. The contract size, the value of each move, the margin and the costs are all different. This article covers what you need to know before your first gold trade, with every number worked through step by step.
The gold contract: 1 lot = 100 ounces
XAUUSD is the price of 1 ounce of gold in US dollars. A price of 4,000 means 1 ounce costs 4,000 dollars. (This article uses 4,000 as an assumed figure for the math, not a price forecast.)
- 1 lot is usually 100 ounces
- 0.10 lot = 10 ounces
- 0.01 lot = 1 ounce, the smallest size many accounts allow
Points and pips on gold have no single standard.
- A point is the last decimal of the price. If the price has 2 decimals (4,000.25), 1 point = 0.01 dollars. With 3 decimals (4,000.253), 1 point = 0.001 dollars. The account we test on uses 3 decimals
- A pip is counted by many people as 0.10 dollars, but some tools count it differently
The safe way is to think in dollars of price distance, for example “Stop loss 8 dollars away”, and check the contract specification in your platform (right-click the symbol in Market Watch and choose Specification). Look at the contract size, the number of decimals, the minimum lot, the lot step, trading hours and swap for your own account. For the basics, see Pips vs lots.
What a 1-dollar move is worth
Profit or loss = price move (dollars) × 100 × lot
Example: you Buy 0.10 lot and the price rises 7.50 dollars.
- Size = 100 × 0.10 = 10 ounces
- Profit = 7.50 × 10 = 75 dollars
If the price falls 7.50 dollars instead, you lose the same 75 dollars.
The right-hand column matters more than it looks. At a price of 4,000, a 1% move in gold is 40 dollars. At 1.00 lot, that 1% move is 4,000 dollars. Work out your own size with the lot calculator.
The margin gold uses
Margin used = 100 × lot × price ÷ leverage
At an assumed price of 4,000 dollars:
| Size | Contract value | 1:20 | 1:100 | 1:500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.01 lot | 4,000 | 200 | 40 | 8 |
| 0.10 lot | 40,000 | 2,000 | 400 | 80 |
| 1.00 lot | 400,000 | 20,000 | 4,000 | 800 |
The middle row at 1:100: 100 × 0.10 × 4,000 ÷ 100 = 400 dollars.
Two things to remember. First, gold’s margin rises with the gold price: if gold doubles, the same lot uses twice the margin. Second, leverage does not change the profit or loss per dollar of price move. What it changes is the lot size you are able to open. Many brokers and regulators set lower leverage for gold than for currency pairs, and the formula can differ by account. For margin level and Stop out in full, read Leverage, margin and Stop out, or try your numbers in the margin calculator.
What moves gold
- The US dollar. Gold is priced in dollars. When the dollar strengthens, gold gets more expensive for anyone holding another currency, so gold often moves opposite to the dollar, though not every time
- Real interest rates are interest rates minus inflation. Gold pays no interest, so when real rates rise, the opportunity cost of holding gold rises too. More in Why interest rates move currencies and gold
- Market fear. When markets are scared, people tend to look for assets they see as safe, and gold is one of them
- US economic data such as inflation (CPI), jobs (NFP) and rate decisions (FOMC). Price often jumps when a number comes out different from what the market expected. See How to read the economic calendar
None of this says whether gold will go up or down. Knowing these factors helps you understand why gold runs hard on some days, and which days deserve extra caution.
When gold moves, in Thai time
Gold on trading platforms trades almost 24 hours, Monday to Friday, opening Monday morning and closing Saturday morning Thai time (UTC+7). Many brokers have a short daily break, around 4–5 a.m. or 5–6 a.m. Thai time depending on US daylight saving and the broker. Times worth knowing:
| Window | Thai time (US summer / standard) | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Many US data releases | 19:30 / 20:30 | CPI and NFP, price often jumps |
| London + New York overlap | 19:00–23:00 / 20:00–24:00 | Highest liquidity of the day |
| FOMC decision | 01:00 / 02:00 (late night) | Price often swings hard |
| After the daily break | Around 05:00 | Spread tends to widen |
Thai mornings and afternoons are not always quiet. Don’t assume gold will be calm at any hour without looking at your own data. For market hours in full, read Forex market hours in Thai time.
Volatility: think in % of price, not dollars
Gold’s price changed a lot in just a few years, so a distance that used to be large can quietly become small. In our measurement on the gold M1 chart, the median width of large swings measured with ZigZag looked like this:
In the same data set, the raw figures are in points, at 1 point = 0.001 dollars: 13,564 points in 2022 and 49,640 points in 2026.
- In dollars: 49.64 ÷ 13.56 ≈ 3.7 times
- As % of price: 1.18 ÷ 0.76 ≈ 1.6 times
Gold really did get more volatile, but most of the growth in dollar terms came from gold getting more expensive. Take a rule like “Stop loss 10 dollars” used since 2022:
- 2022: 10 ÷ 13.56 = 74% of a typical swing, a wide Stop loss
- 2026: 10 ÷ 49.64 = 20% of a typical swing, now a very tight Stop loss that gets swept far more easily
Same line in the rules, but the meaning changed on its own without anyone editing it. If you set distances as % of price, or with ATR, they move with the market. There is more evidence on this in Market regime.
A distance set in dollars or points is the answer for one price level. When gold’s price changes, the meaning of that distance changes with it.
Gold’s spread cost
The spread is the gap between the buy and sell price, and you pay it on every trade. We measured gold’s spread over 61.3 million real ticks from January to August 2026 on the account we backtest with. The average was 0.272 dollars per ounce. The widest hour of the day came right after the daily break, around 5 a.m. Thai time, at 0.348 dollars on average. Spreads differ by account and broker, so treat this as an example, not a standard.
| Size | Spread cost per trade (at 0.272) |
|---|---|
| 0.01 lot | 0.272 dollars |
| 0.10 lot | 2.72 dollars |
| 1.00 lot | 27.20 dollars |
What matters is the share of your Stop loss. With a 5-dollar Stop loss, the spread takes 0.272 ÷ 5 = 5.4% of your risk. With a 12-dollar Stop loss, only 2.3%. The more often you trade and the tighter your Stop loss, the harder it hits. More in What spread is. If you hold overnight there is also swap: read Swap and overnight fees.
A system that works on gold may not work on currency pairs
In our backtest, we took a set of systems developed on gold M1 and ran them on 11 other symbols, adjusting lot and spread for each but leaving the rules unchanged, on real ticks from January to September 2026. We looked at the Profit factor (total profit divided by total loss, above 1 means profit).
- Gold: 2.01
- Slightly above 1, two symbols: GBPUSD 1.09 and CHFJPY 1.06
- USDJPY 1.00, break-even
- The other 8 below 1, from 0.96 down to 0.63, including silver (XAGUSD) at 0.96
Not even another metal behaved the same. Rules tuned on gold capture how gold behaved in that period, not a universal law. Don’t move a system across markets without testing it again, and don’t assume trading several markets always spreads your risk: see Correlation and portfolio risk. All of these are backtest results. Past results do not predict future results, and they are not returns you should expect.
Example: sizing a gold trade step by step
A 2,000-dollar account, risking 1% per trade, assumed price 4,000 dollars, Stop loss 8 dollars away (0.2% of price).
- Money you accept to lose = 2,000 × 1% = 20 dollars
- Loss per 0.01 lot if the Stop loss is hit = 8 × 1 = 8 dollars
- Lot = 20 ÷ (8 × 100) = 0.025 lot, rounded down to 0.02 lot
- Actual risk = 8 × 100 × 0.02 = 16 dollars, plus about 0.272 × 2 = 0.54 dollars of spread
Always round down, never up. Rounding up to 0.03 lot would risk 24 dollars, more than 1%.
Another case: a 500-dollar account risking 1% = 5 dollars, with a Stop loss 12 dollars away. The math gives 5 ÷ (12 × 100) ≈ 0.004 lot, below the 0.01 lot minimum. Opening 0.01 lot would risk 12 dollars, or 2.4% of the account. Your choices are to accept the higher risk knowingly, or to wait for a setup with a tighter natural Stop loss. Squeezing the Stop loss just to make the lot fit is not one of them. The full method is in Position size from your Stop loss.
Common mistakes
- Using the same lot as on currency pairs. Same lot, very different contract value. At an assumed price of 4,000 and 1:100 leverage, 0.10 lot of gold uses 400 dollars of margin, while EURUSD at 1.1000 uses 110. Start at 0.01 lot and size from your Stop loss every time
- Copying point distances from videos or other articles. Points are not the same on every account. One person’s “SL 300 points” can be 3 dollars, another’s 0.30 dollars. Always convert to dollars first
- Keeping old dollar distances after gold’s price has changed a lot. A distance that used to be wide becomes tight without you noticing. Review it as % of price
- Holding through big news without realising. CPI, NFP and FOMC land in the evening to late night, Thai time. Check the calendar before you open a trade
- Assuming gold must rise when the dollar falls. It is a tendency. At times both move the same way. Use it as context, not a signal
- Moving a system from gold to currency pairs without testing. In our tests, a system with a clear edge on gold had almost no edge on the other 11 symbols. For how to read test results, see The MT5 backtest report explained
Frequently asked questions
How much money do I need to trade 0.01 lot of gold?
It depends on the gold price and your leverage. At an assumed price of 4,000 dollars, 0.01 lot uses about 40 dollars of margin at 1:100. But margin is only money set aside. You also need enough to absorb your Stop loss and any move against you along the way. If you risk 1% per trade with a Stop loss 8 dollars away, 0.01 lot loses 8 dollars per losing trade, so the account should hold about 800 dollars.
How much is 1 pip on gold?
Many people count 1 pip as a 0.10-dollar move, worth 10 dollars at 1 lot. But there is no single standard, and some platforms and tools count differently. A point is the last decimal of the price. With 2 decimals, 1 point = 0.01. With 3 decimals, 1 point = 0.001. Check the contract specification of your own account.
Does gold always rise when the dollar weakens?
No. Gold often moves opposite to the dollar, but there are many stretches where both rise or fall together, because other factors are at work, such as market fear and central-bank gold buying. Treat the relationship as context, not as a trading signal.
This is general education, not investment advice. Trading is risky and you may lose all of your capital.