How to read the XAUUSD chart
XAUUSD is the price of one troy ounce of gold in US dollars. Each candle on the chart shows where the price opened, its high, its low and where it closed for that period. Green candles closed higher than they opened, red ones lower.
- Pick a timeframe for your style. 5 to 15 minutes for intraday trades, 1 hour to 4 hours for swing trades over a few days, daily for the bigger trend. The chart above starts on 1 hour.
- The chart is already in IST. Candle times match your clock, so the London open and US data releases line up with the times on our forex market hours page.
- Mark the obvious levels. Recent swing highs and lows, and round numbers such as 4,250 or 4,300, are where many traders place orders and stops.
- Check the economic calendar before you trust a pattern. A US jobs or inflation number can wipe out a set-up in seconds. See the economic calendar.
Gold price in rupees: how the conversion works
A troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams. To turn the dollar price per ounce into rupees per 10 grams:
₹ per 10 g = XAUUSD price × USDINR ÷ 31.1034768 × 10
With gold at $4,286.20 and the dollar at ₹95.82, that's 4,286.20 × 95.82 ÷ 31.1034768 × 10 = ₹1,32,044 per 10 grams, or ₹13,204 per gram. The live box above does the same sum with the latest price.
Why this isn't the price in Indian shops or on MCX
The converted figure is the international spot price in rupees. The gold rate you see at a jeweller in India is higher, and MCX futures trade at their own price, because:
- Import duty and GST raise the price of gold sold in India.
- Jewellers add making charges and their own margin on top.
- MCX gold is an exchange-traded futures contract quoted in rupees per 10 grams. Its price reflects import duty and the cost of carry to expiry, so it doesn't equal the converted spot price.
- The rupee moves too. If the dollar strengthens against the rupee, gold in rupees can rise even on a day when XAUUSD falls.
Use the converted figure to understand how the global price moves, not as a buying price for physical gold.
When gold moves most, in IST
Gold trades almost 24 hours a day, but it doesn't move evenly. It's usually quietest in the Asian morning, picks up at the London open, 12:30 IST in summer or 13:30 IST in winter, and moves most in the London–New York overlap, 17:30 – 21:30 or 18:30 – 22:30 IST. US data at 8:30 a.m. New York time often brings the sharpest candles of the day. The live session clock shows which sessions are open right now, and the best time to trade gold goes deeper.
What moves the gold chart
- The US dollar. Gold is priced in dollars, so a stronger dollar tends to weigh on it and a weaker dollar to support it.
- Interest rates and real yields. Gold pays no interest, so rising real yields usually make it less attractive and falling yields more attractive.
- Federal Reserve decisions and US data. Jobs, inflation and Fed meetings change rate expectations, and the chart reacts within seconds.
- Risk and geopolitics. In times of stress, investors often buy gold as a safe haven.
- Central bank and ETF demand. Large buyers can support the price over months.
These are tendencies, not rules. The XAUUSD trading guide explains each one in more detail.
From the chart to a sized trade
- Find your entry and put the stop beyond a level that would prove the idea wrong, such as below the last swing low for a buy.
- Measure the stop in dollars of price. A stop from 4,286.20 to 4,280.70 is $5.50.
- Work out the lot size: on a 100-ounce contract, each $1 move is $100 per lot. With $100 of risk and a $5.50 stop, that's 100 ÷ (5.50 × 100) = 0.18 lots, rounded down.
- Check the margin and, on a prop account, the daily loss limit before you place it.
The XAUUSD lot size calculator does steps 3 and 4 for you, and gold pip value explains why "pips" on gold can mean $0.10 or $0.01.
XAUUSD, gold ETFs and MCX: which is which?
- XAUUSD is the global spot gold price in dollars. Retail traders usually trade it as a CFD with a broker, with leverage.
- MCX gold futures trade on an Indian exchange in rupees, with fixed lot sizes and expiry dates.
- Gold ETFs on NSE and BSE hold mainly physical gold and are bought like shares, without leverage.
All three follow the same global gold price over time, but the rupee, taxes and contract details make their day-to-day numbers differ.