How do you trade gold (XAUUSD) on a funded account?

Gold (XAUUSD) is priced in US dollars, so a stronger dollar tends to weigh on it and a weaker dollar tends to support it. The other big driver is interest rates: gold pays no yield, so rising real rates make holding it less attractive, and falling rates do the opposite.

Gold also reacts to fear. In a risk-off move, when stocks fall and uncertainty rises, buyers often step in. None of these links is fixed, and they can work against each other on the same day, which is one reason gold can swing sharply.

In practice, many traders check the US dollar and US bond yields before trading gold. When both move hard in one direction, gold rarely ignores it.

Gold trades nearly around the clock on weekdays, but the moves cluster in two windows: the London open and the US session, especially around US data such as inflation, jobs and central bank decisions. The Asian session is often quieter.

On the 1-Step, 2-Step and Instant Funded, opening new metals positions is blocked from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after high-impact news on accounts bought from 7 October 2026, unless you bought the News Trading add-on. Closing is always allowed. Silver (XAGUSD) is also on the list and usually moves even more in percentage terms.

Gold is not sized in pips like EURUSD. Use the dollar move instead: lots = risk in dollars ÷ (stop distance in dollars × value of a $1 move per lot). The value per lot depends on the contract size, which you read in the instrument details in the Terminal.

Worked example, assuming the instrument details show 100 ounces per lot, so a $1 move is worth $100 per lot: a $10,000 account risking 0.5% risks $50. With a $5 stop, one lot would lose $500, so the size is $50 ÷ $500 = 0.10 lots. If your details show a different contract size, redo the sum with that number; the order ticket also shows the loss at your stop before you send it. Check the commission and swap in the instrument details too, since they add to the cost of every lot.

On Instant Funded the leverage on commodities is 1:20. On the 1-Step and 2-Step, check the instrument details for metals before you trade. Leverage only affects margin; the daily limit is still 5% on the Challenges and 3% on Instant Funded.

Because gold’s ranges are wide, a stop that fits the market is usually wider than on a major pair, so the position must be smaller for the same risk. Traders who size gold like EURUSD often lose a day’s limit in one candle.

A practical start: trade gold at half the risk you use on forex until your journal shows how your stops behave in it.