Tick volume in gold trading

Tick volume is the number of price updates (ticks) recorded in a bar. Because spot gold trades over the counter with no central exchange, retail platforms cannot show real traded volume for XAUUSD, so they display tick volume instead. Real volume is the number of contracts actually traded, available for COMEX futures.

How it applies to gold trading

Research on currency and metals markets has found that tick volume broadly tracks real activity: more trading produces more price changes. It is therefore usable for a rough reading of when gold is busy, such as the London open, the New York open and data releases. It is less reliable for precise volume analysis, such as volume profile, OBV or VWAP, because tick counts differ by platform and price feed.

For volume-based tools, many gold traders use the GC futures chart, which reports traded contracts.

Worked example

Example (hypothetical numbers): on one platform, the 1-hour bar at the New York open shows 18,000 ticks against 6,000 for a typical Asian hour. On another platform the same hour shows 11,000 ticks. Both show the open is about three times busier, but the absolute numbers cannot be compared or used as contract volume.

A common mistake

Reading tick volume spikes as large institutional orders. They show activity, not size.

See also: Volume profile, OBV, VWAP, GC futures.

Frequently asked questions