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How to trade gold (XAU/USD): a beginner’s guide

What XAU/USD means, when gold trades, how leverage works on it and how to place your first gold trade on MetaTrader 5.

Bilal Hatab7 min read

Gold is one of the most traded markets in the world. With BBCorp you trade it as a CFD on MetaTrader 5: you take a position on its price, up or down, without buying, storing or insuring any metal.

What XAU/USD means

On a trading platform, gold is quoted as XAU/USD. XAU is the code for one troy ounce of gold, and USD is the US dollar. A price of 2,400 means one ounce of gold costs 2,400 US dollars.

When you think the price will rise, you buy (go long). When you think it will fall, you sell (go short). Your result is the difference between the price you open at and the price you close at, multiplied by the size of your position.

When gold trades

Spot gold trades 23 hours a day, five days a week, with a one-hour break each day. It is busiest when London and New York are both open, and around major US economic releases such as inflation and jobs data.

What moves the gold price

The US dollar, interest rates, inflation and uncertainty all push gold around. We explain each one in What moves the price of gold?.

Leverage on gold

Leverage lets you open a position larger than the money in your account. On gold, leverage is up to 1:200: a position worth 20,000 US dollars needs 100 US dollars of margin. A small price move then has a large effect on your balance, in both directions.

How to place your first gold trade

  1. Open an account in the client portal and complete your identity check (KYC).
  2. Fund it with one of the payment methods offered in your country.
  3. Download MetaTrader 5 and log in with the details from the portal.
  4. In MetaTrader 5, open Market Watch and find XAU/USD. If it is not listed, right-click and choose Show All.
  5. Open a new order, choose your volume, and set a stop loss and a take profit before you confirm.
  6. Choose Buy if you expect the price to rise, or Sell if you expect it to fall.

Silver, platinum and palladium

The same steps work for the other three metals BBCorp offers: silver (XAG/USD), platinum (XPT/USD) and palladium (XPD/USD). Live prices for all four are on Metals.

Tips before you start

  • Practise on a demo account first: the help centre explains how to open one.
  • Decide your stop loss before you open the trade, not after.
  • Keep each position small compared with your balance.
  • Check the economic calendar for US releases that can move gold sharply.
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