Gold is priced like a currency pair and sized like a commodity, which is why the arithmetic that works on EURUSD quietly fails on XAUUSD. The numbers below are the whole trick — and every one of them comes from the contract specification, not from the chart.
On a two-decimal XAUUSD quote, the smallest standard increment is 0.01 — so a move from 4,000.00 to 4,000.01 is "one pip" on most brokers. Some platforms and traders count a pip as 0.1 instead, and a few gold symbols quote with three decimals. Nothing is wrong with any of these conventions — but mixing them is how a stop ends up ten times too wide or too tight. Before the first trade on any broker, write down two numbers from the contract specification: what they call a pip, and the contract size. Everything else follows from those.
A standard lot of XAUUSD is 100 troy ounces. So one 0.01 move on one standard lot is:
0.01 × 100 oz = $1.00 per standard lot
| Position size | Ounces | Value of a 0.01 move | Value of a $1.00 price move |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.00 lot (standard) | 100 oz | $1.00 | $100.00 |
| 0.10 lot (mini) | 10 oz | $0.10 | $10.00 |
| 0.01 lot (micro) | 1 oz | $0.01 | $1.00 |
That last column matters more than the pip column in practice: traders talk about "a fifteen-dollar move in gold", and on a standard lot that is $1,500 of profit or loss. If your broker's contract size is not 100 oz — some use 1 oz, 10 oz or 50 oz accounts — scale the table proportionally. The pip-value table covers the common variants.
Size comes from the stop, never from the target:
lots = risk in $ ÷ (stop distance in 0.01-pips × pip value per lot)
Worked example. A $2,000 account risks 1% = $20. Entry 4,000.00, stop 3,985.00 — a stop distance of 15.00 price points = 1,500 of the 0.01 pips. On a standard lot each of those is worth $1, so the stop carries $1,500 of risk per full lot:
$20 ÷ $1,500 = 0.0133 lots → round down to 0.01 lot (1 oz)
The position now risks 1,500 × $0.01 = $15, comfortably inside the $20 budget — and the leftover covers spread slippage. Rounding up to 0.02 lots would risk $30, half again over the plan. The XAUUSD position-size calculator does this arithmetic live, including the dollar risk it displays before you place anything — check that number against the plan, every time.
Spread. XAUUSD spreads are thin in quiet sessions and ugly around data. On a micro account a "2-cent" spread is already 2 pips × $0.01 = small, but in percentage-of-risk terms the spread on gold can be several times the EURUSD equivalent. Around US data the quoted spread can widen past the stop distance itself.
News. Gold trades the dollar and the rate outlook directly, so CPI, NFP and FOMC hit it violently. The economic calendar marks every one of them. A position sized for normal spreads can double its risk purely through slippage on a release.
Swap. Holding gold overnight pays or charges the funding differential — on some symbols it is significant enough to matter over a multi-week hold. Check the platform's swap table before treating XAUUSD as a long-term position.
1. Contract size written down (100 oz? 1 oz?).
2. Pip convention written down (0.01 or 0.1).
3. Dollar value of a 0.01 move per 0.01 lot confirmed on the platform.
4. Stop expressed in price, risk checked on the position-size calculator, and the platform's displayed dollar risk matching the plan.
On the common 100-ounce standard contract with a 0.01 pip, one pip is $1.00 per standard lot, $0.10 per mini lot and $0.01 per micro lot. If your platform counts a pip as 0.1, multiply those by ten.
Usually 100 troy ounces of XAUUSD — so one full lot at a $4,000 gold price controls $400,000 of metal, which is exactly why position size, not entry, decides most outcomes.
Decide the dollar risk first, divide by the stop's dollar risk per lot, round down. Or use the XAUUSD position-size calculator and read the "dollar risk" it prints before placing the order.
Almost always the contract specification — 1 oz, 10 oz, 50 oz and 100 oz contracts all exist. Read the broker's spec, then scale the table above.
Education only, never financial advice.
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