Finding and trading gold on FxPro platforms

Finding XAU/USD in the terminal

In MT4 and MT5, open the Market Watch window (Ctrl+M), right-click, and select 'Show All' to display the full list of instruments. Gold appears as XAU/USD under the metals category, and you can add it to your favourites by right-clicking and choosing 'Symbols' or dragging it to the chart. In cTrader, gold is listed under 'Metals' in the left-hand panel, and in FxPro Edge, you can search for XAU/USD directly in the instrument search bar.

Once you have located XAU/USD, open a chart to see the current price, which is quoted to two decimal places, with one pip equal to 0.01. The reference price used in our examples is around 4275.0, but the live price will differ. Check the contract specification for the instrument to see the exact tick value and margin requirements before placing an order.

Sizing the order with our calculators

One standard lot of gold is 100 ounces, and a one-pip move is worth $1 per lot. If you are new to gold, a 0.10 lot (10 ounces) is a common starting size, but the right size depends on your account balance and risk tolerance. Use our position size calculator to determine how many lots to trade based on the percentage of your account you are willing to risk on a single trade.

Our margin calculator shows the exact margin required for your chosen lot size at your account's leverage. For example, at 1:500 leverage, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin, but that figure changes with leverage and price. Enter your account currency to see the margin in AED if your account is denominated in dirhams.

Setting the exit with the entry

Before you click buy or sell, decide your stop-loss and take-profit levels, and attach them to the order. A stop-loss limits your loss if the market moves against you, and a take-profit locks in your gain at a target. Use our profit calculator to see the potential profit or loss in your account currency for a given price move, which helps you set realistic targets.

In the order ticket, you can enter the stop-loss and take-profit as prices or as distances in pips from the entry. The platform will then manage the exit automatically, removing the need to watch the screen constantly. Remember that gold can gap over weekends or during news, so a stop-loss is not a guarantee of the exact exit price.

Choosing the correct gold symbol from several options

A broker can list several gold symbols because the same metal is offered through different contract types, such as spot gold versus futures gold, or through separate account environments. On FxPro platforms you may see XAUUSD for spot gold, while a symbol like GOLD or XAUUSD.f might refer to a gold futures contract. These are different products: spot gold settles in two business days and has no fixed expiry, whereas a futures contract has a monthly or quarterly expiry and may be priced slightly differently because it includes the cost of carry until that date.

The symbol you want for the standard gold trade on this platform is XAUUSD, which is the spot gold price quoted in US dollars per troy ounce. Before you place an order, always check the symbol details in the Market Watch window: right-click the symbol, choose Specification, and look at the contract size and the margin currency. If you see a contract size of 100 and a description mentioning spot gold, you have the right instrument. Symbols with a suffix such as .m or .pro often indicate a different account type, but the underlying spot gold contract is the same.

Several symbols can also appear because the broker offers the same spot gold through different execution models, such as instant execution versus market execution, or through a dealing desk account and an agency account. On FxPro, the same XAUUSD symbol may be available on MT4, MT5, cTrader, and FxPro Edge, and the price feed can differ by a fraction of a pip between platforms because each platform has its own liquidity pool. Pick the symbol that matches the platform you are actually trading on, and if you are unsure, compare the bid and ask prices across platforms before you enter.

What one lot of gold actually contains

One standard lot of gold on this platform is a contract for 100 troy ounces of gold, so the value of a one-pip move is directly tied to that quantity. Since the XAUUSD price is quoted to two decimal places, one pip equals 0.01 US dollars per ounce. For a full lot of 100 ounces, a move from 4275.00 to 4275.01 therefore changes the position value by 1 US dollar. This is the smallest price increment shown on the platform, and every tick of 0.01 moves your profit and loss by exactly 1 dollar per lot before any costs are applied.

The margin requirement for a gold position depends on the notional value of the position and the leverage cap that applies to your account. At a reference price of 4275.0 and a position of 0.10 lots, the notional value is 0.10 multiplied by 100 ounces multiplied by 4275.0, which equals 42,750 US dollars. The exact margin you must post is this notional value divided by your leverage ratio, so if your account uses a leverage of 1:500, the margin for that 0.10-lot trade is about 85.50 US dollars. This is the amount of your account balance that is locked up as collateral for the trade.

Because the contract size is fixed at 100 ounces per lot, you can use fractional lot sizes to trade smaller amounts of gold. A 0.01 lot position controls just 1 ounce of gold, and a 0.05 lot controls 5 ounces. The pip value scales linearly with the lot size, so a 0.01 lot position moves by 0.01 US dollars per pip, while a 0.10 lot position moves by 0.10 US dollars per pip. This makes it straightforward to calculate the dollar risk of a stop-loss distance before you enter, because the pip value per lot is always 1 US dollar per pip.

Attaching a stop loss at the moment of entry

You should set the stop loss as part of the order ticket before the trade is sent, because this guarantees that the protective exit is active from the first second the position is open. On MT4 and MT5, the order window has a Stop Loss field right under the volume field; enter your stop price there rather than modifying the position later. If you wait until after the trade is live, a fast move against you can happen in the few seconds it takes to open the position modification window, and during that window your risk is unprotected.

A stop loss placed at entry can be attached to a market order or to a pending order. For a market order, type the stop price into the Stop Loss field and the platform will send the order with the stop already linked. For a pending order such as a buy stop or sell limit, the stop loss field is also available, and the stop will become active only when the pending order triggers and becomes a live position. This is useful if you are entering on a breakout: you can set both the entry and the exit before price reaches the level, so no manual action is needed at the moment of execution.

The distance of the stop loss from the entry price determines the dollar risk on the trade, and you can calculate that risk using the pip value of the lot size you have chosen. If you are trading 0.10 lots, each full pip of 0.01 in the XAUUSD price is worth 0.10 US dollars. A stop loss that is 500 pips away, or 5.00 dollars per ounce, would therefore risk 50 US dollars on the trade. Set the stop loss at a price level that reflects your maximum acceptable loss for that trade, not at an arbitrary distance, and always check that the stop price is inside the normal market range for the session to avoid being stopped out by routine volatility.

The meaning of the swap line on an overnight gold trade

The swap line that appears in your terminal after a position is held past the server rollover time is the interest adjustment for keeping the gold position open overnight, and it can be either a credit or a debit to your account. Gold is a physical asset with a storage and financing cost, so the swap rate reflects the difference between the interest rates of the two currencies in the pair, USD and the implied gold lease rate, plus a broker markup. The swap amount is charged or paid in the account currency, which for UAE-based traders is often USD or AED depending on the account type.

The swap is applied once per day at a specific server time, which on FxPro platforms is usually 21:00 or 22:00 server time, and the exact time is shown in the specification window for the XAUUSD symbol. The swap is calculated per lot and is multiplied by the number of nights the position is held. If you hold a position from Wednesday to Thursday, the swap is typically tripled to account for the weekend, because the forex market is closed on Saturday and Sunday but the financing cost still applies. This means holding a gold position over Wednesday night can cost or earn three times the normal daily swap.

Whether the swap is positive or negative for your position depends on whether you are long or short gold and on the current interest rate differential. In most market conditions, being long gold means you pay a small daily swap because you are effectively borrowing USD to buy a non-yielding asset, while being short gold may earn a small credit. The exact swap rate is not fixed and changes with central bank rates and market conditions, so you should check the current long and short swap values in the symbol specification before holding a position overnight. For a short-term trade, the swap cost is usually negligible compared to the spread, but for a multi-week position it can add up.

Reading the swap column for a gold position held over the weekend

The swap column in your terminal shows the total swap amount that has been credited or debited to your account for the current open position, and it updates every time a new swap is applied at rollover. On MT4 and MT5, you can see this by opening the Terminal window, selecting the Trade tab, and looking at the Swap column next to your XAUUSD position. A negative number means you have paid that amount in swap charges, while a positive number means you have received a credit. The amount is shown in the account currency, so if your account is in AED, the swap is converted at the prevailing exchange rate.

For a gold position held over the weekend, the swap charged on Wednesday night is usually three times the normal daily swap, and this triple charge appears as a single line in the swap column on Thursday morning. This is because the forex market settles trades two business days after the trade date, so a trade opened on Wednesday would normally settle on Friday, but because the weekend intervenes, the settlement is pushed to Monday and the financing cost for three days is applied at once. The swap column does not show the individual daily charges separately; it shows the cumulative amount for the position.

To see the exact swap rate that applies to gold before you open a position, right-click the XAUUSD symbol in the Market Watch window and select Specification, then scroll down to the Swap Long and Swap Short fields. These values are quoted in points or in account currency per lot, and they can change daily with market interest rates. The swap column in your open positions is the best place to monitor the actual cost of holding the position, because it reflects the real rates applied by the broker, not an estimate. If you plan to hold a gold position for more than a few days, factor the swap into your expected profit calculation.

checked 2026-07-09 · https://www.dfsa.ae/public-register/firms/fxpro-global-markets-mena-limited