TradeBB TRADING TOOLS
XAUUSD Lot Size Calculator
Enter your account, your risk and your stop to see how many lots of gold to trade. Switch modes to see what a pip is worth at your size, or what a gold trade made after commission and swap.
Your gold lot size is the amount you risk divided by what one lot loses if your stop is hit. One lot of XAU/USD is usually 100 ounces, so every $1.00 the gold price moves is worth $100 on one lot, and $1 on 0.01 lots.
The formula
How to calculate lot size for gold
Work it out in price, not pips. The stop distance is the gap between your entry and your stop, in dollars per ounce.
Example: a $10,000 account risking 1% is $100. Buy gold at 2,650.00 with a stop at 2,645.00, and the stop is $5.00 away. One lot of 100 ounces would lose $500 at the stop, so you trade $100 ÷ $500 = 0.20 lots.
If your broker charges commission, add it to what one lot loses. The calculator does this for you and rounds down, so a stop-out never costs more than you planned. For other markets, use the position size calculator.
Gold pips
How many pips is a $1 move in gold?
It depends on what your platform calls a pip. Some count a $0.01 move as a pip, others a $0.10 move. So a $1.00 move in gold is either 100 pips or 10 pips, and a "50-pip stop" is either $0.50 or $5.00 away.
That's why this calculator takes your stop as a price. It then shows the distance both ways, so you can match it to your platform.
What a move is worth depends only on your lot size. On 0.01 lots, every $0.01 is worth 1 cent and every $1.00 is worth $1. On 1 lot, it's $1 and $100. Pip values for forex pairs are in the pip calculator.
Contract size
Check your broker's gold contract size
Most brokers set one lot of gold at 100 ounces, but not all of them. If yours uses a different size, every number on this page changes with it: at 10 ounces a lot, the same $100 risk with a $5.00 stop is 2.00 lots, not 0.20.
Check it once. In MT4 or MT5, right-click XAUUSD (or GOLD) in Market Watch, choose Specification and read the contract size. Enter that in the calculator under ounces per lot.
Profit and costs
What a gold trade made after commission and swap
Switch to profit mode and enter your open and close prices. Profit = price move × ounces, then minus commission, plus or minus swap.
Example: buy 0.10 lots at 2,650.00 and close at 2,662.50. That's a $12.50 move on 10 ounces, so the trade made $125.
Costs matter more the longer you hold. Here's a 1-lot trade closed $1.00 up, worth $100. With $7 commission and −$15.40 of swap, the trade kept $77.60. For how swap is charged, see what swap is in forex. For currency pairs, use the forex profit calculator.
Gold in your journal
Is gold making you money?
If gold is the symbol you trade most, that doesn't mean it's the one that pays. A busy symbol can be up on price and still down once commission and swap are taken out, and you only see that when it sits next to everything else you trade.
- Results by symbol — gold's net result next to every pair you trade
- Commission and swap on every trade — what each gold trade really cost
- Planned risk next to actual — whether your stops held the size you planned
A trading journal does this for every trade you take. For MT4 and MT5 accounts, see the forex trading journal.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much is 1 lot of XAUUSD?
Usually 100 ounces of gold. Every $1.00 the price moves is worth $100 on one lot. Some brokers use a different size, so check your platform's contract specification.
How much is 0.01 lots of gold?
One ounce, at the usual 100-ounce lot. A $1.00 move is worth $1, and a $10.00 move is worth $10.
How much is 1,000 pips on gold?
If your platform counts a pip as $0.01, it's a $10 move, worth $10 on 0.01 lots. If it counts a pip as $0.10, it's a $100 move, worth $100 on 0.01 lots.
Does leverage change my lot size?
No. Leverage decides how much margin the trade ties up. Your lot size comes from your risk and your stop. With 1:100 leverage, 0.20 lots at 2,650.00 needs about $530 of margin.
Why does my platform show a different result?
Check three things: your broker's contract size, whether its "pip" means $0.01 or $0.10, and commission and swap. Enter them in the calculator and the numbers should match.
Size the gold trade here. See what gold really made you in your journal.
Bring in your trades and see gold's result after commission and swap, next to every other symbol you trade.