The short answer
On a standard gold contract of 100 ounces, a $1 move in the price is worth $100 per lot. How many "pips" that is depends on your broker's convention:
| Lot size | Ounces | Per $1 move | Per pip, if a pip is $0.10 | Per pip, if a pip is $0.01 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.00 | 100 | $100.00 | $10.00 | $1.00 |
| 0.10 | 10 | $10.00 | $1.00 | $0.10 |
| 0.01 | 1 | $1.00 | $0.10 | $0.01 |
If a pip is $0.10, one pip on 1 lot is $10 and on 0.01 lot it's $0.10. If a pip is $0.01, one pip on 1 lot is $1 and on 0.01 lot it's $0.01. The money is the same; only the label changes.
Why gold has two pip sizes
Pips are a forex convention. Currency pairs have an agreed pip, the fourth decimal, but gold isn't a currency pair and no exchange defines a gold pip. Brokers and traders filled the gap differently:
- $0.01 per pip. Many broker education pages, including Vantage, M4Markets and Ultima Markets, define a gold pip as a $0.01 move. On this count a $1 move is 100 pips.
- $0.10 per pip. Many traders, signal groups and tools count a $0.10 move as a pip, so a $1 move is 10 pips and one pip on a full lot is $10, just like EURUSD. PipLedger's calculators use this convention.
M4Markets puts it plainly: the $0.01 convention "is useful, but it is not universal." Neither side is wrong. The danger is in mixing them: copying a "50-pip stop" from someone who uses $0.10 pips onto a platform or calculator that uses $0.01 pips gives you a stop of $0.50 instead of $5.00.
The number that never changes: dollars per $1 move
Skip the pip argument and think in price. Whatever anyone calls a pip, this is always true on a 100-ounce contract:
Money per $1 move = Lots × 100
| A $1.00 move on gold is… | Count |
|---|---|
| Pips, if a pip is $0.10 | 10 |
| Pips, if a pip is $0.01 | 100 |
| MT5 points, gold quoted to 2 decimals | 100 |
| MT5 points, gold quoted to 3 decimals | 1,000 |
| Money on 1 lot (100 oz) | $100 |
| Money on 0.01 lot (1 oz) | $1 |
When you read a gold setup, convert the stop and target into dollars of price first. "Stop $6 below entry" can't be misread. "Stop 60 pips below" can.
How to check your broker in MT5
- In Market Watch, right-click XAUUSD (it may be called GOLD or XAUUSD.m) and open Specification.
- Look at Contract size. It's 100 at most brokers, which means 1 lot is 100 ounces. If it's different, every number on this page scales with it.
- Look at Digits. With 2 digits, a price like 4,286.20, one MT5 point is $0.01. With 3 digits, one point is $0.001.
- Check what your broker's own help pages call a pip, if they use the word at all.
The quickest test is on a demo account: open 0.01 lot and watch the profit as the price moves $1. It should change by about $1. If it changes by $0.10 or $10, your contract is not 100 ounces.
Gold pip value by lot size
| Lots | Per $1 move | Per 0.10 pip | Per 0.01 pip | $5 move | $20 move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.01 | $1.00 | $0.10 | $0.01 | $5.00 | $20.00 |
| 0.02 | $2.00 | $0.20 | $0.02 | $10.00 | $40.00 |
| 0.05 | $5.00 | $0.50 | $0.05 | $25.00 | $100.00 |
| 0.10 | $10.00 | $1.00 | $0.10 | $50.00 | $200.00 |
| 0.20 | $20.00 | $2.00 | $0.20 | $100.00 | $400.00 |
| 0.50 | $50.00 | $5.00 | $0.50 | $250.00 | $1,000.00 |
| 1.00 | $100.00 | $10.00 | $1.00 | $500.00 | $2,000.00 |
| 2.00 | $200.00 | $20.00 | $2.00 | $1,000.00 | $4,000.00 |
Read across a row to see what one position does. On 0.10 lot, a $5 move is $50 and a $20 move is $200. On 1 lot the same moves are $500 and $2,000, which is why gold needs smaller lot sizes than most currency pairs.
In rupees
For traders in India on a USD account, here's what a $1 move means:
| Lots | Per $1 move | In rupees |
|---|---|---|
| 0.01 | $1.00 | ₹96 |
| 0.05 | $5.00 | ₹479 |
| 0.10 | $10.00 | ₹958 |
| 0.50 | $50.00 | ₹4,791 |
| 1.00 | $100.00 | ₹9,582 |
Turning a gold stop into money
Risk = Stop distance in dollars × Lots × 100
Lots = Money at risk ÷ (Stop distance in dollars × 100)
Say your account is $10,000 and you risk 1%, which is $100. Your stop is $5.00 away, 50 pips with $0.10 pips or 500 with $0.01 pips. The lot size is 100 ÷ (5 × 100) = 0.20 lots. Count the stop either way; as long as you convert it to dollars first, the answer is the same.
My own rule on my $15,000 prop account is that no trade may lose more than 1.8% of the account, which is $270. At 0.10 lot of gold, each $1 move is $10, so my stop is never more than $27 away, 270 pips in the $0.10 convention. I learned that rule from a trade without a stop; the story is in capital preservation in trading.
The XAUUSD lot size calculator does this from your balance, risk and stop, and gold risk management covers where to place the stop in the first place.
Lot sizes for 1% risk
Here's the same formula worked out for common account sizes and stop distances:
| Account | 1% risk | $5 stop | $10 stop | $20 stop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $10 | 0.02 | 0.01 | below 0.01 |
| $5,000 | $50 | 0.10 | 0.05 | 0.02 |
| $10,000 | $100 | 0.20 | 0.10 | 0.05 |
| $25,000 | $250 | 0.50 | 0.25 | 0.12 |
Two things stand out. On a $1,000 account, even 0.01 lot with a $20 stop risks $20, which is 2%, so small accounts need tight stops or must accept more risk per trade. And on a $25,000 account, 0.50 lot with a $5 stop is a 1% trade, but the same 0.50 lot with a $20 stop would be 4%.
A worked gold trade
You buy 0.05 lot at 4,286.20 with a stop at 4,279.70 and a target at 4,301.20.
- Stop distance: 4,286.20 − 4,279.70 = $6.50, which is 65 pips at $0.10 or 650 at $0.01. Risk: 6.50 × 0.05 × 100 = $32.50.
- Target distance: 4,301.20 − 4,286.20 = $15.00, 150 or 1,500 pips. Reward: 15 × 0.05 × 100 = $75.00.
- Reward to risk: 15.00 ÷ 6.50 = 1 : 2.31.
- In rupees: about ₹3,114 at risk for about ₹7,187 of profit.
Spread and commission come off the result, and holding overnight adds swap. The profit calculator works it out from entry and exit.
Same lot, very different risk: gold vs EURUSD
A lot of gold controls far more money than a lot of EURUSD, and that's the real reason gold feels so fast:
| 1 lot of | Position value | A 1% price move | Worth on 1 lot |
|---|---|---|---|
| EURUSD | $114,030.29 | 114 pips (0.0114) | $1,140.30 |
| XAUUSD | $428,620.00 | $42.86 (429 pips at $0.10) | $4,286.20 |
A 1% move is ordinary for gold over a day or two. On one lot it's worth roughly four times what the same 1% move on EURUSD is worth. If you size gold the way you size currency pairs, you're taking several times the risk without noticing.
If your account isn't in dollars
Gold's profit is calculated in dollars and then converted. On 1 lot, a $1 move is $100, which is about €87.70 on a euro account, £75.46 on a pound account and ₹9,582 on a rupee account, at the ECB reference rates of 25 September 2026.
Why gold stops look huge in pips
New gold traders often see a 50-pip stop and think it's wide. It isn't. With gold at 4,286.20, a $5 stop is 0.117% of the price. The same percentage on EURUSD at 1.1403 is only about 13 pips. Gold's pips are small relative to its price, so stops of 50 pips or more in the $0.10 convention are common. Copying a 15-pip forex stop onto gold puts it inside ordinary noise.
A better habit is to set the stop from the chart, for example beyond a recent swing or a multiple of the Average True Range, then convert. If the daily ATR(14) on your chart reads 40.00, gold's average daily range is about $40, which is 400 pips with $0.10 pips or 4,000 with $0.01 pips.
If your broker's gold contract isn't 100 ounces
Most brokers use 100 ounces per lot, but not all, and some offer smaller gold symbols. Everything scales with the contract size:
| Contract size | Per $1 move, 1 lot | Per $1 move, 0.01 lot | Per $0.10 pip, 1 lot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 oz | $100.00 | $1.00 | $10.00 |
| 10 oz | $10.00 | $0.10 | $1.00 |
| 1 oz | $1.00 | $0.01 | $0.10 |
If your profit on a $1 move is ten times smaller or larger than you expected, the contract size is almost always the reason.
Spread, commission and swap in gold pips
Costs are easier to judge once they're in the same unit as your stop. Say the gold spread is $0.25 and your account charges a $6 round-turn commission per lot:
- The spread is 2.5 pips at $0.10 or 25 at $0.01, which is $25 per lot.
- The commission of $6 per lot equals a $0.06 move, 0.6 pips at $0.10.
- Together they cost $31 per lot, or $3.10 on 0.10 lot, before the price moves at all.
On a $5 stop, that's over 6% of your risk gone on entry. Swap is charged for holding past the daily rollover and is often larger on gold than on major pairs; the swap calculator shows it for your broker's rates. These numbers are examples, so use your own broker's figures.
Gold pip value on a prop firm account
Prop firm rules are set in dollars, so convert them into gold moves before you trade. On a $100,000 account with a 5% daily loss limit, you can lose $5,000 in a day. On 1 lot that's a $50 move against you. On 2 lots it's $25. Gold can cover $25 in a volatile session, so a 2-lot position with no stop could end the account in one move.
The same thinking applies to margin. One lot of gold at 4,286.20 is a position worth $428,620, so at 1:30 leverage it ties up about $14,287 of margin. The prop firm lot size calculator checks both your risk and the margin rule, and the 80% margin rule explains why that matters.
Silver, and gold on MCX
Silver (XAGUSD) works the same way with different numbers. A standard contract is commonly 5,000 ounces, and a pip is usually taken as $0.01, so one pip on 1 lot is $50 and a $1 move is $5,000. Check the contract size, because some brokers use smaller silver contracts.
MCX gold in India is a different product. It's an exchange-traded futures contract quoted in rupees per 10 grams, so pips don't apply. Everything on this page is about XAUUSD, the gold price in dollars per ounce traded as a CFD or spot contract.
Common gold pip mistakes
- Copying a pip stop without knowing the convention, so a $5 stop becomes $0.50 or $50.
- Sizing gold like EURUSD. One lot of gold moves $100 per $1, and gold can move several dollars in minutes around news.
- Assuming 100 ounces without checking the contract size.
- Typing pips into an MT5 points field. With 2-digit gold, a $5 stop is 500 points.
- Forgetting the spread. A gold spread of $0.30 is 3 pips in one convention and 30 in the other; either way it's $30 on 1 lot.