How many pips is a $1 move in gold?

10 pips, when a pip is 0.10. A move from 2,650.00 to 2,651.00 is 10 pips, worth $100 on one lot and $1 on 0.01 lots.

How much is 0.01 lot of gold worth per pip?

$0.10 per pip, or $1 for every full $1 the gold price moves. 0.01 lots is 1 ounce of gold.

Why do some people say a pip on gold is 0.01?

Brokers and platforms don't agree. Many call 0.10 a pip and 0.01 a point, some call 0.01 a pip. The money doesn't change, only the count: a $1 move is 10 pips at 0.10 or 100 pips at 0.01. Check your broker's contract specification in MetaTrader (right-click XAUUSD, Specification).

How do I work out the lot size for gold?

Divide the dollars you're willing to lose by the stop in pips times $10, and round down to 0.01. With $100 of risk and a 50 pip ($5) stop: 100 ÷ (50 × 10) = 0.20 lots.

Is every broker's gold lot 100 ounces?

Most are, but not all. Some CFD brokers use 10 or 1 ounce contracts. If your broker's lot is 10 ounces, divide every number on this page by 10.

Free tool

Gold pip calculator (XAUUSD)

The short answer: on a standard 100 ounce lot, one pip (a 0.10 move) is worth $10, and a $1 move in gold is worth $100. On 0.01 lots that's $0.10 a pip. Use the calculator for your own size and stop.

Pair

Position size (lots)Pips moved

XAUUSD: one lot is 100 oz and a pip is 0.1 at most MetaTrader brokers. Check your broker's contract size if the numbers look off.

Pip value for 1 lot

$10.00

20 pips is $200.00

Pip value, 1 standard lot: $10.00
Mini lot (0.10): $1.000
Micro lot (0.01): $0.100

Keep yourself to this size

Import your MT4 or MT5 statement into Actal and every trade is checked against your max lot size, daily loss limit and cooldown after a loss.

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What a gold move is worth, by lot size

100 ounces a lot and a pip of 0.10, the most common MetaTrader setup.

Lots	Ounces	Per pip (0.10)	Per $1 move	Per $10 move
0.01	1 oz	$0.10	$1.00	$10.00
0.05	5 oz	$0.50	$5.00	$50.00
0.10	10 oz	$1.00	$10.00	$100.00
0.50	50 oz	$5.00	$50.00	$500.00
1.00	100 oz	$10.00	$100.00	$1,000.00

If your broker counts 0.01 as a pip, divide the pip column by 10. The dollar columns stay the same.

How to size a gold trade

pip value = lots × $10
lot size = risk ÷ (stop in pips × $10)

Example: you'll risk $150 and your stop is $6 away, which is 60 pips. 150 ÷ (60 × 10) = 0.25 lots. If gold hits your stop you lose $150, not a cent more (before spread and commission).

Gold moves a lot more than most currency pairs. A $20 day is normal, which is 200 pips, so a lot size that feels small on EURUSD can be a big position on XAUUSD. Size from the stop every time, never from how many lots you traded yesterday.

Where gold traders lose the most

Using the same lot size as on currency pairs. Gold's daily range is far bigger, so the same lots mean far more risk.
Widening the stop when price comes close. On gold that turns a $100 loss into a $400 one in minutes.
Trading the news spike. CPI and FOMC can move gold $20 in seconds, straight through stops.
Adding to a loser to win it back. That habit ends more gold accounts than any setup.

Knowing your size is the easy part. Keeping it after a few losing trades is the hard part. A forex and gold trading journal checks every trade against your own max lot size and daily loss limit and shows what breaking them cost. For every other pair there's the pip calculator.

Questions people ask

At most MetaTrader brokers one lot of gold (XAUUSD) is 100 ounces and a pip is a 0.10 move, so one pip is worth $10 per lot, $1 on 0.10 lots and $0.10 on 0.01 lots.

See what your gold mistakes cost.

Drop your MT4 or MT5 statement into Actal. Every XAUUSD trade comes in with swap and commission, gets checked against your rules, and every mistake gets a dollar cost. Free during beta, no card.

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Made by Joakim Jusell, trader and coach at Jusell Trading Academy.