Gold (XAU/USD): Live Price, Pip Value and Contract Size
Gold is where sizing mistakes are most expensive, because brokers disagree about what a pip is and the contract is 100 ounces. Fix those two numbers and the rest is ordinary risk maths.
XAU/USD is one troy ounce of gold priced in US dollars, and a standard contract is 100 ounces. A $1.00 move is $100 per standard lot, a $0.10 move is $10 and a $0.01 move is $1 - brokers disagree about which of those they call a pip. Gold is driven mainly by real interest rates, the US dollar and safe-haven demand.
Gold (XAU/USD) right now
One pip = 0.1 of price. A standard lot is 100 troy ounces, so pip value = pip size × contract size × lots. Figures assume a USD account; confirm the contract size with your broker.
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Open XAUUSD on the live desk (H1) → See what the desk does →The contract, first
A standard gold contract is 100 troy ounces, so every $1.00 of price is $100 per lot. Where people get hurt is the word "pip": some platforms call $0.10 a pip, others $0.01, and a few show points. Check your specification, set it in the gold pip calculator, and the tenfold error disappears.
What moves gold
- Real interest rates. Gold pays no yield, so it tends to struggle when inflation-adjusted yields rise and do better when they fall.
- The US dollar, since gold is priced in it.
- Safe-haven demand during stress - reliable in direction, unreliable in timing.
- Central bank buying, which is a slow, structural driver rather than a daily one.
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Play free, no signup →When it moves
Gold trades nearly around the clock on weekdays and reacts sharply to US data - CPI, payrolls and Fed decisions above all. Activity concentrates around the London open and the US session, and spreads widen noticeably in the thin hours.
Sizing it
Gold's daily range in dollars is large compared with a currency pair, so the honest output of any sizing calculation is usually a much smaller lot than traders expect. That is the tool working. For the full walkthrough see gold trading for beginners.
How far XAU/USD actually moves
Measured on the OANDA feed our charting desk runs on, 2026-01-08 to 2026-09-17 (180 completed daily bars). Recalculated every week.
| Average daily range | 126.4 dollars |
|---|---|
| Median day | 104.9 dollars |
| Widest day in the window | 771.6 dollars |
| Quietest day | 31.3 dollars |
| Average as % of price | 2.773% |
| Widest weekday | Thursday (135.8 dollars) |
| Busiest hour | 13:00 UTC, about 31.1 dollars in that hour (quietest 20:00, 10.2) |
The median is the middle day and the average is pulled up by a handful of violent ones, so size a stop against the median and expect the average to flatter you. Full table for every instrument, with the method, on average daily range by pair.
Frequently asked questions
What is a pip in gold?
It depends on the broker: some call $0.10 one pip, others $0.01. On a 100-ounce contract those are $10 and $1 per standard lot respectively.
How big is a gold contract?
A standard XAU/USD contract is 100 troy ounces, so a $1.00 price move is $100 per lot. Some brokers offer 10-ounce or 1-ounce contracts.
What drives the gold price?
Real interest rates, the US dollar, safe-haven demand and longer-term central bank buying.
Why is my gold position risking more than expected?
Usually a pip convention or contract size mismatch, or a stop sized for a currency pair rather than gold's wider range.
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