Trading XAU/USD in the FxPro Terminal

Finding XAU/USD and reading the quote

XAU/USD is listed in the Market Watch or symbol list of MT4, MT5, cTrader and the FxPro app, and on gold it is usually grouped with metals rather than with currency pairs. If it does not appear, right-click the symbol list and show all symbols, then search for XAU. Drag it into your watchlist so the quote stays visible, and open the contract specification from the same menu before you trade it.

The specification is where the arithmetic lives. One standard lot of gold is 100 ounces, and one pip is 0.01 on the quoted price, so a one-pip move on a full lot is worth one dollar. With the reference price near 4275.0, a one-dollar move in the gold price is 100 pips. Read the contract size and the pip definition off the specification screen rather than from memory, because the terminal's own numbers are the ones your order will use.

Check the account type you are trading before you read the quote. On a Raw+ account the cost is split between the spread and a commission, while on a Standard account it is carried in the spread. The quote you see is not the whole cost on either, so compare the two components together rather than reading the spread alone.

Sizing the order before you click

Size the order from the risk, not from the margin the platform will allow. Decide what a losing trade may cost you in A$, then use our position size calculator to convert that into a lot size on XAU/USD at your entry and stop distance. This is the step that turns a vague intention into a number, and it is the one most often skipped when a trader is confident about direction.

Margin is a separate question from risk, and our margin calculator answers it. At leverage of up to 1:200, which is the cap available to Australian clients, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 in margin. That figure is what the position ties up, not what you can lose: a stop placed further away can lose more than the margin held. Treat the leverage cap as a ceiling you stay well under rather than a setting to use in full.

Our pip value calculator gives you the per-pip value of the size you have chosen, in your account currency, so you can see what each increment of the gold price does to the balance. Run it before the order rather than after, and write the resulting numbers down. A trader who knows the pip value and the stop distance before entering does not need to recalculate anything while the position is live.

Setting the exit with the entry

Place the stop loss and the take profit in the same order ticket as the entry, not afterwards. The stop level comes from the market structure that would prove the trade wrong, and the size comes from that distance and your risk budget; setting the exit first and sizing second is the order that keeps the two consistent. An entry placed without a stop is a position whose risk you have not yet decided.

Use our profit calculator to see what the target is worth at your chosen size before you commit, and check that the reward justifies the risk you are carrying. On gold, where a one-dollar move is 100 pips, a target that looks modest on the chart can be a meaningful amount in A$ at a full lot. Seeing that number first is what stops a position from being enlarged mid-trade on impulse.

Finally, decide the holding period and let it govern the exit. A trade intended to close within the session avoids the overnight swap; a trade intended to run for weeks must be sized to carry that cost. Check whether your account is on MT4, MT5, cTrader or the FxPro app and confirm where the stop and target sit in that terminal's order ticket, because the layout differs between them. FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC. It does not hold an ASIC licence, so Australian residents deal with an offshore entity — check this before funding, and again before you leave a position running.

Several XAU/USD entries can appear on the same platform and the right one is the one your account is priced in

Gold usually lists more than once because platforms separate the spot metal from futures and from differently denominated versions, so search the exact code XAU/USD and confirm the contract before you click. On MT4, MT5, cTrader and the FxPro app the symbol tree is organised by category, and a suffix or prefix added by the server can make two entries look identical at a glance. The reference price is around 4275.0, so any listing quoting a wildly different figure is a different instrument, a different contract month or a stale feed, not a bargain.

The entry to use is the spot gold contract quoted in US dollars against the ounce, because that is the instrument this page sizes and prices. Futures-style listings carry expiry and rollover behaviour that changes how a position behaves if you hold it, and a listing denominated in another currency will show a profit and loss converted at a rate you did not choose. Australian accounts funded by PayID or bank transfer still see XAU/USD quoted in US dollars, with the A$ conversion happening at the account level rather than inside the symbol.

Matching the symbol to the account currency and to the platform you actually trade is the check that prevents most sizing errors. If your platform shows gold under a name with a suffix, open the contract specification panel and read the contract size and the currency before placing anything. The price near 4275.0 is a reference, not a level to trade from, and the figure you see on your own feed is the one that matters. When in doubt, place a small test order and confirm the tick value matches 100 ounces before committing size.

One standard lot of XAU/USD is 100 ounces, which fixes the value of every pip you take

One standard lot of gold equals 100 ounces, so a one-dollar move in the price is worth US$100 per lot and the smallest quoted increment, 0.01, is worth US$1 per lot. That single ratio sits behind every calculation on this page: position size, margin, stop distance and profit or loss all scale from the 100-ounce contract. A 0.10-lot position therefore moves US$10 for each dollar of price change and US$0.10 for each 0.01 tick, which is why gold feels fast compared with currency pairs quoted to four decimals.

The contract size is what makes the margin figure meaningful, because margin is a percentage of notional exposure rather than a fee. At the maximum leverage available to Australian clients of 1:200, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin, and that number only makes sense once you know the position represents 10 ounces. Leverage is a cap on how much exposure the broker will carry against your deposit, not a setting to aim at, and using the full cap leaves very little room for the price to move against you before a margin call.

Pip value and lot size are linked, so decide the risk in dollars first and let the lot size follow. If you are willing to lose A$100 on a trade and your stop sits 100 ticks away, the arithmetic points to a 0.10-lot position, because 100 ticks at US$0.10 per tick is US$10 per lot and roughly US$100 across ten of them. The A$ figure you see in your account depends on the conversion rate at the time, so treat the Australian dollar amount as approximate and the US dollar exposure as exact.

Placing the stop in the same order as the entry removes the gap between deciding and protecting

A stop should be attached at the moment the entry order is submitted, because the interval between filling and adding protection is the window where an unexpected move does the most damage. On MT4, MT5, cTrader and the FxPro app this means using the order ticket that carries a stop-loss field rather than sending a market order and editing it afterwards. Gold near 4275.0 can travel a long way in minutes, and a position opened without a stop has no defined loss if the feed gaps or liquidity thins.

The stop level itself should come from the chart and the lot size should come from the stop, not the other way around. Decide where the trade idea is wrong, measure that distance in ticks, then choose a lot size whose loss at that distance fits your risk budget; with a 100-ounce contract every 0.01 of price is US$1 per lot, so the arithmetic stays simple. Setting the stop first also stops you from widening it later, which is the most common way a small planned loss becomes a large unplanned one.

A stop is not a guarantee of the price you exit at, so place it with a little room beyond the level you actually care about. Slippage can occur when the market jumps, and a stop becomes a market order once triggered, filling at the next available price rather than the one you typed. The FCA and CySEC-licensed entity serving Australian clients, FxPro UK Limited, does not hold an ASIC licence, so Australian residents deal with an offshore entity and should check the order execution terms before funding.

The swap line is the daily cost or credit for carrying gold past the platform's cut-off

The swap line on an open gold position is the amount debited or credited each day the position is held past the platform's rollover time, and it appears because spot metal is a financed instrument rather than a simple bet on price. Holding XAU/USD overnight means the position is effectively rolled forward, and the charge reflects the interest differential between the two currencies plus the broker's own markup. The figure is not fixed: it depends on the direction of your trade, the size of the position and the rates in force on the day.

Swap is calculated per lot per night, so a 0.10-lot position accrues one tenth of the quoted per-lot amount, and the sign can flip between long and short. A long gold position is typically charged and a short may be charged or occasionally credited, but the only reliable source is the swap table inside the platform, which shows the current long and short rates for the instrument. Because the rate is a number you read rather than one this page can give you, check it before deciding to hold through rollover.

Swap matters most to anyone treating gold as a multi-day position, because small nightly charges accumulate against the trade. A position held for weeks can see the accumulated cost become a meaningful part of the result, which is why the swap field belongs beside the stop and the lot size in your planning. Wednesday rollover often carries a triple charge to cover the weekend, so confirm the schedule on your platform. Australian clients should also note the entity caveat: FxPro UK Limited holds FCA and CySEC licences, not an ASIC licence.

Checking the contract specification panel answers the questions the chart cannot

The contract specification panel is the authoritative place to confirm what one lot means for the symbol you have selected, because the chart shows price and nothing about the terms behind it. Open it before your first gold trade and read the contract size, the currency of the quote, the tick size, the margin requirement and the swap rates in one pass. For XAU/USD you should see 100 ounces per lot and a tick of 0.01, and if either differs, you are looking at a different instrument than the one this page describes.

Margin requirements in that panel are expressed as a percentage and translate into the dollar figure you need free in the account. At the 1:200 cap available to Australian clients, a 0.10-lot position requires about $85.50, and the panel will show the rate that produces it. Remember that the cap is a ceiling on exposure, not a target, and that a larger position reduces the distance the price can move before the account falls below the maintenance level and positions are closed.

Trading hours and rollover time also live in the specification, and both affect how a stop behaves. Gold does not trade around the clock without breaks, so a stop placed near a session boundary can be filled after a gap rather than at the level you set, and the daily cut-off determines when swap is applied. Confirm the schedule on your own platform, keep the A$ deposit buffer in mind when sizing, and treat every number in the panel as the version that governs your account rather than the reference price near 4275.0.

Margin, free margin and equity are three different numbers and only one of them decides whether you keep the position

Equity is the number that decides whether a position survives, because it combines your balance with unrealised profit and loss while margin is only the deposit locked against the trade. Free margin is what remains available to open further positions or absorb losses, and it shrinks as the market moves against you even though the margin requirement itself stays roughly fixed. On a 0.10-lot gold position at 1:200 the locked margin is about $85.50, but the equity figure is what the platform watches.

A margin call arrives when equity falls toward the maintenance requirement, and the broker may close positions automatically rather than ask for more money. Because gold moves in whole dollars that are worth US$100 per lot, a position sized near the leverage cap can reach that point quickly. Keeping free margin well above the minimum is the practical defence, and it is the reason the 1:200 figure should be read as a limit on what the broker permits rather than a sensible amount of exposure for your account.

Funding the account affects none of these calculations directly, but the method and timing do. Australian clients can use PayID or bank transfer, and the balance only counts once it clears, so a position opened in anticipation of a deposit is exposed in the meantime. The entity caveat applies throughout: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, does not hold an ASIC licence, and Australian residents deal with an offshore entity, so check this before funding.

checked 2026-09-29 · FxScouts, SafeForex, FxPro