GOLDSNIPER Gold trading / The basics
What is XAUUSD?
XAUUSD (often written XAU/USD) is a quote for gold in US dollars. It is commonly expressed as a dollar price per troy ounce. That quote can be used as a reference for several different products, but it does not tell you which contract you own or how much risk you are taking.
If an illustrative XAUUSD quote is $3,000, it means roughly $3,000 per troy ounce—not that every “gold trade” buys an ounce of physical metal. Read the instrument specification before calculating profit, loss or trading hours.
Spot gold is not the same as a CFD, future or gold bar
| Instrument | What you hold or trade | Key difference |
|---|---|---|
| Physical gold | Allocated metal or a claim under the dealer's custody terms | Storage, delivery and dealer charges matter. |
| OTC spot gold | A bilateral bullion-market transaction | Settlement and counterparty terms are negotiated. |
| Retail gold CFD | A broker contract on price changes | No metal delivery; leverage, financing and broker terms matter. |
| Exchange gold future | A standardised, dated exchange contract | Contract size, expiry and exchange rules matter. |
The CME standard GC gold future, for example, represents 100 troy ounces. That fact does not establish the lot size of your broker's XAUUSD CFD, and smaller futures contracts exist. Check the symbol's specification rather than importing another product's numbers.
How to read an XAUUSD price move
If gold moves from an illustrative $3,000 to $3,006, the change is $6 per ounce. For a product representing 10 ounces, that is $60 of price movement before spreads, commissions, financing, currency conversion and slippage. A short position would have the opposite direction of price exposure. The result may differ if your contract uses another size or pricing convention.
“Pip” is used inconsistently across gold platforms. Some use a $0.10 move, others display different decimal precision or refer to a minimum tick. For sizing a position, the unambiguous inputs are the price difference in dollars per ounce and the ounces represented by your position. The XAUUSD position-size calculator lets you make those assumptions explicit.
What can move gold?
Gold responds to a changing mix of interest-rate expectations, the dollar, risk appetite, physical demand, central-bank activity and positioning. None is a reliable one-way switch. A higher-than-expected inflation release, for example, may affect both rates and the dollar; see our sourced CPI and gold explainer for two possible outcomes.
When can you trade XAUUSD?
Gold markets operate across time zones during much of the working week, but your available hours depend on the actual instrument and provider. Futures may have a scheduled daily break; CFD brokers may have their own pause and holiday schedule. See the gold trading-hours guide rather than relying on a fixed GMT opening time.
Before using a gold signal
- Match the signal's symbol to the exact instrument offered by your broker.
- Check whether the quoted entry is still available, including the bid–ask spread.
- Confirm the stop and targets are on the correct side of the entry.
- Size using your own contract specification and loss limit; leverage can magnify losses.
Our signal-reading guide walks through those fields with an illustrative example. This page is educational and not personalised financial advice.