Metals

XAU/USD: Gold / US Dollar

Spot gold priced in US dollars per troy ounce. Gold pays no interest, which is why it is commonly analysed against real yields and the dollar.

Open an account Chart

What happens next

Choose live or demo, and say where you live. On this website. No name and no e-mail address is asked for here, and nothing is stored.
Register in the client portal. Your name, e-mail address, a password and your country; acceptance of the Terms and the Risk Disclosure. Then you confirm your e-mail address.
Demo: choose your virtual funds and open the terminal. Live: upload your identity documents; an account is opened once they are approved. Live trading is not yet connected.

Market DNA

Below, XAU/USD is taken apart: its class, its contract, its hours and what is connected to it. Structure, not a signal.

Market DNA

What XAU/USD is made of.

Its class, its contract, the hours it lives in and the institutions, releases and ideas connected to it.

This is structure. It is not a score and it is not a signal: it tells you what the instrument is, not what it will do.

BaseXAUGold

QuoteUSDUS Dollar

The price of XAU/USD is the amount of USD (US Dollar) needed for one troy ounce of gold.

Asset class: Metals
Contract: 1 standard lot = 100 troy ounces
Platform symbol: XAUUSD
Typical sessions: Close to 24 hours a day on weekdays, with a short daily break.See the sessions on the World Market Clock
Central bank: Federal Reserve
Economic events: Consumer Price Index
Concepts: Real Yields Safe Haven Inflation

Trading conditions

As published by GIO4X.

Spread from: 0.05 USDminimum, widens with market conditions
Leverage: 1:200depends on instrument and jurisdiction
Minimum lot: 0.01
Contract: 1 standard lot = 100 troy ounces
Platform symbol: XAUUSD

IndicativeSource: GIO4XIndicative trading conditions published by GIO4X. Not a live quote; actual spreads and requirements vary with market conditions and account type.

All trading conditions

On the 777 Raptor demo

Demo symbol XAUUSD. How the demo terminal is set up, not GIO4X’s specification for live trading, which is not yet published.

Contract size, 1.00 lot: 100 troy ounces; Sizes from 0.01 to 100 lots, in steps of 0.01.
A move of 1.00 in the price, on 1.00 lot: 100 USD; 1.00 × the contract size. A pip is a convention of currency pairs; this instrument has none.
Margin per 1.00 lot at 1:100: not available: reading the simulated price; contract size × price ÷ leverage
Margin per 1.00 lot at 1:500: not available: reading the simulated price; 1:500 is the “up to” figure the account types publish: a ceiling, not what an instrument or a client is given

Contract data read from the demo terminal. Demo prices are simulated by GIO4X’s own engine; they are not market prices. Swap rates are not published.

Third-party chart

XAU/USD on a daily chart

The chart is supplied by TradingView and stays unloaded until you ask for it. Loading it connects your browser to TradingView’s servers.

Third partyChart by TradingViewThird-party data for Gold / US Dollar, not supplied or verified by GIO4X and not a GIO4X price. Symbol OANDA:XAUUSD, UTC.

Before you trade it

Work the numbers. Know the words.

Tools

All tools

Glossary

Full glossary

In depth

What is particular to Gold / US Dollar.

Gold is the one metal held mainly for what it is and not for what it does. Almost all the gold ever mined still exists, in vaults, jewellery and central bank reserves, so the price is set far more by the willingness of existing holders to keep it than by what mines produce in a year. That makes it behave like a currency with no central bank and no interest rate.

General education about the underlying market. It states no current price or rate, makes no forecast and is not advice. What GIO4X offers on this instrument is in the trading conditions on this page, not here.

What moves it

Real interest rates: Gold pays nothing, so its cost is the return given up by not holding something that does. When the yield on inflation-protected government bonds rises, that cost rises and gold has tended to fall; when real yields fall, it has tended to rise. The link failed plainly from 2022, when real yields rose steeply and gold did not fall as the relationship would have suggested, a gap widely attributed to buying by central banks.
The US dollar: Gold is priced in dollars, so a stronger dollar makes it dearer for buyers who earn other currencies, and demand from them eases. The two usually move in opposite directions. They rise together when the fear in the market is about the financial system as a whole, since both are then being bought as refuges.
Central banks: Central banks hold gold as a reserve asset that is no one else’s liability. As a group they were sellers for many years and have been net buyers since around 2010, with purchases stepping up markedly from 2022, as the World Gold Council’s figures record. These buyers are not sensitive to interest rates in the way investors are, which is one reason the older rules of thumb have worked less well.
Investment flows: Investors hold gold as bars and coins, through exchange-traded funds backed by metal in vaults, and through futures. Fund holdings and futures positions can change quickly and are the most volatile part of demand. They tend to follow the price as well as lead it, which amplifies moves in both directions.
Jewellery, and the buyers who wait: Jewellery is the largest physical use, with India and China the largest markets. These buyers are sensitive to price: they step back when gold rises quickly and return when it falls, and recycling of old jewellery rises with the price. Demand of this kind slows a move; it rarely starts one.
Stress, and the exception: Gold is bought in times of fear, but in the first days of a scramble for cash it has been sold along with everything else, because it is one of the few things that can be sold. That happened in the autumn of 2008 and again in March 2020. In both cases it recovered while other assets were still falling.

Mechanics

How it is quoted and built.

XAU and the troy ounce: XAU is the code for one troy ounce of gold in the same international standard that gives currencies their three-letter codes. A troy ounce is about 31.1 grams, roughly a tenth heavier than the ounce used for food. XAU/USD is therefore read like a currency pair: the number of US dollars one troy ounce costs.
The London market: The centre of the wholesale market is London, where gold is traded directly between banks, refiners and dealers, not on an exchange. The standard unit is the Good Delivery bar of roughly 400 troy ounces, held in a small number of vaults, and most trading is in “unallocated” gold: a claim on a bank for metal, not title to particular bars. The spot price a screen shows is the price for this metal, delivered in London.
The benchmark auctions: Twice each London business day, in the morning and the afternoon, an electronic auction sets the LBMA Gold Price, which is used to value contracts, funds and mine sales around the world. It has been administered by ICE Benchmark Administration since March 2015, when it replaced the London Gold Fix that had run since 1919. It is a reference price at two moments, not a continuous quote.
The futures exchange: The main futures market is COMEX in New York, part of CME Group, where the standard contract is for 100 troy ounces. Futures and London spot are tied together by dealers who exchange one for the other, so the two prices normally differ only by the cost of financing and storing metal until the contract’s delivery month. In March 2020, when refineries and flights were shut, moving metal between the two cities became difficult and the gap opened far beyond its usual size.
The end of the fixed price: Under the Bretton Woods system the dollar was convertible into gold at a fixed official price for foreign governments. The United States suspended that convertibility on 15 August 1971. A freely moving gold price, and therefore every modern chart of it, dates from the years that followed.

Not the same thing

The market itself, and a contract on its price.

Spot reference price: “Spot gold” is the price for unallocated metal settled in London two business days later. It is a wholesale price between large institutions. What a retail screen shows is a provider’s own quote based on it, which is why two screens can differ slightly at the same moment.
A futures contract: A future is an agreement on an exchange to buy or sell a fixed quantity in a named month. It has an expiry, a holder who wants to stay in the market must move to a later month, and its price includes financing and storage to that date. Very few contracts end in delivery of metal.
Physical metal: A coin or small bar costs more than its gold content, because it must be made, insured, shipped and sold at a margin, and it sells back for less. It has to be stored and may be taxed differently from a financial contract. In return the holder depends on no counterparty, which is the reason people hold it.
A contract on the price: A contract for difference or a margined spot position gives exposure to the change in the price and nothing else. No metal is owned or can be delivered, the position depends on the provider, and holding it overnight normally carries a financing adjustment. It is a way of taking a view on the price, not a way of owning gold.

Timetable and sources

What is scheduled, and where the facts come from.

Worth knowing the timetable of

The Federal Open Market Committee’s Interest Rate Decision and the chair’s press conference
The United States Consumer Price Index, monthly
The monthly United States employment report, with Non-Farm Payrolls
The weekly Commitments of Traders report, for positioning in COMEX gold futures
The World Gold Council’s quarterly Gold Demand Trends, including central bank purchases
The Indian festival and wedding seasons and the Chinese New Year, the regular peaks of jewellery buying

Named, never dated: dates move. The Economic Events page explains the main releases.

Primary sources

World Gold Council: Gold Demand Trends; central bank reserve statistics
London Bullion Market Association: LBMA Gold Price, Good Delivery rules, and London vault holdings and clearing statistics
CME Group: COMEX gold futures contract specifications and warehouse stocks
Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Commitments of Traders
United States Department of the Treasury: daily real yield curve rates; International Monetary Fund: International Financial Statistics, for official gold reserves

Named by publisher and series, so each can be found from the publisher itself. GIO4X has no connection with them.

What would a trade in it cost?

The cost of a trade is the spread, any commission, and financing for each night it is held. The Cost Lab works the three out for a day trade, an overnight position and a longer hold, from figures you enter. A complete total also needs the swap rates, which are not yet published; the Lab shows which input is missing instead of a total that only looks complete.

Work it out in the Cost Lab

The risk, in ordinary type.

Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to trade foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose.

XAU/USD is traded on margin. Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade.

Risk disclosure

Continue

Fetching the page

XAU/USDGold / US Dollar

Spot gold priced in US dollars per troy ounce. Gold pays no interest, which is why it is commonly analysed against real yields and the dollar.

Open an account Chart

What happens next

Choose live or demo, and say where you live. On this website. No name and no e-mail address is asked for here, and nothing is stored.
Register in the client portal. Your name, e-mail address, a password and your country; acceptance of the Terms and the Risk Disclosure. Then you confirm your e-mail address.
Demo: choose your virtual funds and open the terminal. Live: upload your identity documents; an account is opened once they are approved. Live trading is not yet connected.

As published by GIO4X.

Spread from

0.05 USDminimum, widens with market conditions

Leverage

1:200depends on instrument and jurisdiction

Minimum lot

0.01

Contract

1 standard lot = 100 troy ounces

Platform symbol

XAUUSD

IndicativeSource: GIO4XIndicative trading conditions published by GIO4X. Not a live quote; actual spreads and requirements vary with market conditions and account type.

All trading conditions

On the 777 Raptor demo

Demo symbol XAUUSD. How the demo terminal is set up, not GIO4X’s specification for live trading, which is not yet published.

Contract size, 1.00 lot: 100 troy ounces; Sizes from 0.01 to 100 lots, in steps of 0.01.
A move of 1.00 in the price, on 1.00 lot: 100 USD; 1.00 × the contract size. A pip is a convention of currency pairs; this instrument has none.
Margin per 1.00 lot at 1:100: not available: reading the simulated price; contract size × price ÷ leverage
Margin per 1.00 lot at 1:500: not available: reading the simulated price; 1:500 is the “up to” figure the account types publish: a ceiling, not what an instrument or a client is given

Contract data read from the demo terminal. Demo prices are simulated by GIO4X’s own engine; they are not market prices. Swap rates are not published.

What is particular to Gold / US Dollar.

What moves it

Real interest rates: Gold pays nothing, so its cost is the return given up by not holding something that does. When the yield on inflation-protected government bonds rises, that cost rises and gold has tended to fall; when real yields fall, it has tended to rise. The link failed plainly from 2022, when real yields rose steeply and gold did not fall as the relationship would have suggested, a gap widely attributed to buying by central banks.
The US dollar: Gold is priced in dollars, so a stronger dollar makes it dearer for buyers who earn other currencies, and demand from them eases. The two usually move in opposite directions. They rise together when the fear in the market is about the financial system as a whole, since both are then being bought as refuges.
Central banks: Central banks hold gold as a reserve asset that is no one else’s liability. As a group they were sellers for many years and have been net buyers since around 2010, with purchases stepping up markedly from 2022, as the World Gold Council’s figures record. These buyers are not sensitive to interest rates in the way investors are, which is one reason the older rules of thumb have worked less well.
Investment flows: Investors hold gold as bars and coins, through exchange-traded funds backed by metal in vaults, and through futures. Fund holdings and futures positions can change quickly and are the most volatile part of demand. They tend to follow the price as well as lead it, which amplifies moves in both directions.
Jewellery, and the buyers who wait: Jewellery is the largest physical use, with India and China the largest markets. These buyers are sensitive to price: they step back when gold rises quickly and return when it falls, and recycling of old jewellery rises with the price. Demand of this kind slows a move; it rarely starts one.
Stress, and the exception: Gold is bought in times of fear, but in the first days of a scramble for cash it has been sold along with everything else, because it is one of the few things that can be sold. That happened in the autumn of 2008 and again in March 2020. In both cases it recovered while other assets were still falling.

How it is quoted and built.

XAU and the troy ounce: XAU is the code for one troy ounce of gold in the same international standard that gives currencies their three-letter codes. A troy ounce is about 31.1 grams, roughly a tenth heavier than the ounce used for food. XAU/USD is therefore read like a currency pair: the number of US dollars one troy ounce costs.
The London market: The centre of the wholesale market is London, where gold is traded directly between banks, refiners and dealers, not on an exchange. The standard unit is the Good Delivery bar of roughly 400 troy ounces, held in a small number of vaults, and most trading is in “unallocated” gold: a claim on a bank for metal, not title to particular bars. The spot price a screen shows is the price for this metal, delivered in London.
The benchmark auctions: Twice each London business day, in the morning and the afternoon, an electronic auction sets the LBMA Gold Price, which is used to value contracts, funds and mine sales around the world. It has been administered by ICE Benchmark Administration since March 2015, when it replaced the London Gold Fix that had run since 1919. It is a reference price at two moments, not a continuous quote.
The futures exchange: The main futures market is COMEX in New York, part of CME Group, where the standard contract is for 100 troy ounces. Futures and London spot are tied together by dealers who exchange one for the other, so the two prices normally differ only by the cost of financing and storing metal until the contract’s delivery month. In March 2020, when refineries and flights were shut, moving metal between the two cities became difficult and the gap opened far beyond its usual size.
The end of the fixed price: Under the Bretton Woods system the dollar was convertible into gold at a fixed official price for foreign governments. The United States suspended that convertibility on 15 August 1971. A freely moving gold price, and therefore every modern chart of it, dates from the years that followed.

The market itself, and a contract on its price.

Spot reference price: “Spot gold” is the price for unallocated metal settled in London two business days later. It is a wholesale price between large institutions. What a retail screen shows is a provider’s own quote based on it, which is why two screens can differ slightly at the same moment.
A futures contract: A future is an agreement on an exchange to buy or sell a fixed quantity in a named month. It has an expiry, a holder who wants to stay in the market must move to a later month, and its price includes financing and storage to that date. Very few contracts end in delivery of metal.
Physical metal: A coin or small bar costs more than its gold content, because it must be made, insured, shipped and sold at a margin, and it sells back for less. It has to be stored and may be taxed differently from a financial contract. In return the holder depends on no counterparty, which is the reason people hold it.
A contract on the price: A contract for difference or a margined spot position gives exposure to the change in the price and nothing else. No metal is owned or can be delivered, the position depends on the provider, and holding it overnight normally carries a financing adjustment. It is a way of taking a view on the price, not a way of owning gold.

What is scheduled, and where the facts come from.

Worth knowing the timetable of

The Federal Open Market Committee’s Interest Rate Decision and the chair’s press conference
The United States Consumer Price Index, monthly
The monthly United States employment report, with Non-Farm Payrolls
The weekly Commitments of Traders report, for positioning in COMEX gold futures
The World Gold Council’s quarterly Gold Demand Trends, including central bank purchases
The Indian festival and wedding seasons and the Chinese New Year, the regular peaks of jewellery buying

Named, never dated: dates move. The Economic Events page explains the main releases.

Primary sources

World Gold Council: Gold Demand Trends; central bank reserve statistics
London Bullion Market Association: LBMA Gold Price, Good Delivery rules, and London vault holdings and clearing statistics
CME Group: COMEX gold futures contract specifications and warehouse stocks
Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Commitments of Traders
United States Department of the Treasury: daily real yield curve rates; International Monetary Fund: International Financial Statistics, for official gold reserves

Named by publisher and series, so each can be found from the publisher itself. GIO4X has no connection with them.

What would a trade in it cost?

Work it out in the Cost Lab

The risk, in ordinary type.

XAU/USD is traded on margin. Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade.

Risk disclosure