XAUUSD in gold trading

XAUUSD is the symbol most trading platforms use for spot gold priced in US dollars. It is read like a currency pair: XAU is the base (one troy ounce of gold) and USD is the quote currency. A quote of 4,000.00 therefore means one troy ounce of gold costs $4,000. When XAUUSD rises, gold is strengthening against the dollar; when it falls, the dollar is buying more gold.

How it applies to gold trading

Although it is written like a forex pair, XAUUSD behaves differently from EURUSD or GBPUSD. The price is quoted to two decimal places (cents), one standard lot is usually 100 troy ounces rather than 100,000 units of currency, and the market closes for about an hour each day and for the whole weekend. A $1 move is worth $100 on a standard lot, $10 on a mini lot and $1 on a micro lot, which is why gold’s daily range of tens of dollars matters so much for position sizing.

Most XAUUSD quotes on retail platforms are derived from the spot market and the COMEX futures curve, not from a single exchange. That is why two platforms can show slightly different prices at the same moment, and why the price on a chart can differ from the London auction price quoted in the news.

A common mistake

Beginners often assume XAUUSD “pips” and lot sizes work exactly as they do on currency pairs and size positions accordingly. On a 100-ounce contract a $10 move, which gold can make in minutes around US data, is $1,000 per lot. Always check the contract specification before the first trade.

See also: Spot gold, Troy ounce, Lot, Pip.

Frequently asked questions