The Contract Is Fixed; the Price Is Not
On the standard XAUUSD contract, one lot is a fixed quantity of metal: 100 troy ounces. That number does not move. A pip is defined as $0.01 of price, and a pip value of $1.00 per standard lot follows from those two facts alone — it is arithmetic, not a market condition. Because the specification is fixed, the calculator can convert any price move into money without guessing.
What does move is the price itself, and with it the notional value of the position, the margin your broker requires, and the cost of the spread. Those are the numbers the calculators above report live. Read them there rather than from any static figure, because they change with the market and with your broker's conditions.
| Instrument class | Spot gold |
|---|---|
| One pip | 0.01 |
| Standard lot | 100 troy ounces |
| Value of one pip per lot | $1.00 |
| Typical spread | 30 pips — · FxPro verified |
| Notional value of one lot | — |
| Margin on one lot at 1:30 / 1:100 / 1:500 | — |
The last two rows move with the market and are filled in from the live rate; everything above them is fixed by the contract. Leverage available to you depends on your regulator and account type — check it in the platform before you size a position.
Why Gold Does Not Behave Like a Forex Pair
A currency pair has two legs, and its price is a ratio between two monetary systems. Gold has one leg: the metal. It is quoted in a currency, but it is not issued by a central bank, it pays no interest, and it has no yield curve. That changes what drives it. Gold responds to real rates, to the dollar, to reserve demand and to stress in a way no single pair does, and it can gap through levels that a pair would grind through.
The practical consequence is that gold's volatility is its own. A pip is small — $0.01 of price — but the metal can travel many pips in a session, and the sessions are not equal. The Asian session, the London session and the New York session each bring different liquidity and different ranges, and the handover between them is where the arithmetic most often surprises a trader who sized for a quiet pair.
| Currency | Central bank | Policy rate | What moves it |
|---|---|---|---|
| XAU | No issuer | Priced in USD | real US yields · FOMC · fund flows |
| USD | Federal Reserve (Fed) | Federal funds target range | FOMC · CPI · jobs data |
Sizing Is the Last Step, Not the First
Before you commit to a lot size, three things have to be fixed in your head: the contract specification, the currency your account is denominated in, and the distance to your invalidation. The site's calculators are built to respect all three. The lot value and micro lot tools translate a price move into money in your account currency; the margin calculator shows what the broker will hold; the stop-loss and spread cost tools show what the trade costs before it is opened.
Because readers hold accounts in many different currencies, none of these tools assume one. You supply the account currency; the arithmetic follows. Work through the specification and the session context first, then let the calculators produce the number. That order — specification, context, size — is the whole discipline.
Spreads are tightest when two sessions are open at once and widest when one desk has gone home and the next has not arrived. The shaded band is the overlap.
Gold pip values use the fixed contract specification combined with live ECB reference rates. All values are indicative and for educational purposes — not live trading quotes. See full pip value table →