Gold (XAU/USD)
- Contract size
- 100
- Pip size
- 0.01
- Quoted in
- USD
Value of one pip by volume
| Volume | Units | Value per pip |
|---|---|---|
| 0.01 | 1 | 0.17 ZAR |
| 0.05 | 5 | 0.83 ZAR |
| 0.10 | 10 | 1.67 ZAR |
| 0.50 | 50 | 8.34 ZAR |
| 1.00 | 100 | 16.69 ZAR |
| 2.00 | 200 | 33.38 ZAR |
| 5.00 | 500 | 83.45 ZAR |
| 10.00 | 1 000 | 166.89 ZAR |
What XAUUSD is in practice
XAUUSD is gold quoted in US dollars — a metal instrument, not a currency pair, even though the ticker looks like one. The base asset is gold, the quote currency is USD. One lot is 100 units of the base asset, which the registry spells out as 100 troy ounces per lot. That single line explains most of what follows: the position size is fixed by the contract, and the price movement is what you get paid for or charged for.
For a South African reader there is a second layer. The instrument is quoted in dollars, but the trading account may be denominated in rand. The registry notes that the result of a trade is converted into the account currency. So the number that lands on your statement depends on two moving things, not one.
Worth reading alongside this: Position size · Gold (XAU/USD), and Required margin · Gold (XAU/USD).
How the price is quoted
Gold in this instrument carries two decimal places. The price step — the pip — is 0.01. That is the smallest increment the quote moves in, and it is the unit in which your result is measured. Treat the pip as the ruler, not as a promise about how far price travels; the registry fixes the step size, not the volatility.
The two-decimal convention matters more than it looks. On a chart, a move of one dollar in the gold price is a hundred pips. On a statement, it is a hundred steps multiplied by the step value. Same event, two ways of describing it — and mixing them up is one of the ordinary places people lose track of their own position.
What one lot is worth per step
The registry gives the step value directly: 0.01 × 100 in the quote currency (USD) per lot. It does not give a total contract value, and this page will not manufacture one — the arithmetic belongs to you and your own account, not to a reference text.
| Item | Value from the registry |
|---|---|
| Instrument | Gold (XAU/USD), ticker XAUUSD |
| Quote currency | USD |
| Decimal places | 2 |
| Price step (pip) | 0.01 |
| Contract size | 100 units of the base asset per lot |
| Base asset in practice | 100 troy ounces per lot |
| Step value | 0.01 × 100 in USD per lot |
Ready to place a bet? Whatever this page shows, the terms that bind you are the platform's own — read them before you fund anything.
Try ExnessHow the result of a trade is counted
The rule is short: the price movement in steps is multiplied by the step value, and the product is converted into the account currency.
Read it in the order it happens. First you measure the move — how many pips the price travelled between entry and exit. Then you apply the step value for the lot size you hold. Then the conversion into your account currency applies, if your account is not in dollars. Each of those three stages is a place where a trader's mental estimate and the broker's statement can part company.
The most common slip is treating the pip as a fixed amount of money. It is not; it is a fixed amount of price. The money figure only appears once the step value and the lot size meet it. The second slip is forgetting the conversion stage entirely — a trade that looks like one result in dollars reads as another in rand, and the difference is not a rounding error.
Where traders usually go wrong
Sizing a position by the deposit rather than by the distance to the level that would prove the trade wrong. The instrument's step value is fixed, so the only variable under your control is how many lots you carry and where you place your exit. Work backwards from the second, not forwards from the first.
Reading a two-decimal quote as if the last digit were noise. It is the unit your result is counted in.
Assuming the dollar figure is the final figure. If the account is in rand, the conversion is part of the calculation, not an afterthought.
And the oldest one: treating a leveraged metal position as a store of value. Gold may be the subject of the page, but a margined XAUUSD position is a trade with a defined loss point, not a way of holding metal. The distinction is the whole reason the instrument exists separately from a bar in a vault.
Reader questions
Is XAUUSD the same as buying physical gold?
No. It is a quoted instrument in which gold is priced against the US dollar, with a contract size of 100 units per lot. Owning the contract is not owning metal.
Why is the pip 0.01 rather than something smaller?
The registry sets the price step at 0.01 with two decimal places on the quote. That is the increment your result is measured in, whatever the size of the underlying move.
My account is in rand — does that change the result?
It changes the last stage of the calculation. The movement in pips is multiplied by the step value in USD, and that figure is then converted into the account currency.
Does the lot size change the step value?
No. The step value is stated per lot as 0.01 × 100 in USD. What changes with your position is how many lots you are carrying, and therefore how many times that step value applies.