Gold market: price, hours, and drivers

Live XAU/USD price and what it references

The live XAU/USD price on this page is the spot gold price quoted in US dollars per troy ounce, and it is the reference for every CFD trade you place. Because your account is in AUD, the AUD value of a 0.01 pip move depends on the AUD/USD exchange rate at that moment, but the underlying price you watch is the international spot market. Around 4275.0, a one-pip move is 0.01 USD per ounce.

This price is derived from the interbank gold market and updated in real time during trading hours. It is the same price your broker uses to price its CFD, with the broker's spread added. There is no central exchange for spot gold; it trades over the counter, so the price you see here is a good proxy for what you will get on MT4, MT5, cTrader, or the FxPro app.

When gold is most liquid

Gold is most liquid during the London and New York sessions, and especially in the overlap from about 10 pm to 2 am Sydney time. That is when the bulk of institutional and bank gold trading happens, so spreads are tightest and your orders fill with less slippage. The Asian session, which includes Sydney and Tokyo, is quieter and can see wider spreads on XAU/USD.

For a trader in Australia, the best time to trade gold is often the London open at 5 pm AEST or the New York open at 10 pm AEST, depending on daylight saving. The overlap is the prime window because both European and American desks are active, and news from the US often moves gold sharply. Outside these hours, liquidity thins and the spread can widen, so adjust your position size accordingly.

Real drivers behind the price

Gold is driven mainly by real interest rates, the US dollar, and safe-haven demand. When real yields fall or the USD weakens, gold tends to rise because it pays no interest and is priced in dollars. Conversely, a strong US dollar and rising real rates pressure gold lower. These macro forces set the medium-term trend that you trade with CFDs.

Short-term moves come from economic data, central bank speeches, and geopolitical shocks. A surprise US inflation print or a dovish Federal Reserve comment can spike XAU/USD by several dollars in minutes. Australian traders should also watch the AUD/USD rate because it changes the AUD value of their gold positions, even when the USD price is flat.

How a session's liquidity changes what you pay

The cost you pay on each gold trade widens during the Asian session because fewer market makers are quoting XAU/USD and the order book is thinner. In Sydney and Tokyo hours, the typical spread is wider than in London or New York, and slippage on a 0.10-lot order can add several dollars to the entry price. The only fixed element is the broker's own commission if one applies; the variable part is the market spread, which is set by liquidity providers and changes with each session.

London and New York overlap is when your cost is smallest because both COMEX futures and spot gold desks are active, tightening quotes to the interbank level. That is when a 1.00-lot position in XAU/USD will fill closest to the mid-price, and when stop orders are less likely to gap. Outside that overlap, especially between New York close and London open, the spread can double or more, so the same trade idea costs more to execute.

A session's liquidity also affects the depth behind the top of book, which is what you pay on larger sizes. A 0.10-lot order may get the headline spread, but a 1.00-lot order in a thin session can push through several price levels. In gold, one standard lot is 100 ounces, so at a reference price near 4275.0, each 0.01 pip move is worth A$1.00 if your account is in AUD, and a wider spread is a direct cost before the trade moves in your favour.

What a data release does to the spread

A scheduled US data release widens the XAU/USD spread immediately before the event because market makers pull limit orders to avoid being picked off on stale prices. In the seconds around CPI or non-farm payrolls, the spread on gold can jump from a fraction of a dollar to several dollars per ounce, and the depth available at the top of book shrinks. The spread returns to normal only after the first violent repricing and after liquidity providers reload their quotes.

The worst spread you see is not the headline number but the moment just after the release, when the market is repricing and your market order can fill far from the last traded price. With a 0.10-lot gold position, a 30-cent spread costs A$3.00 before the trade has moved, and with 1:200 leverage the margin is only about $85.50, so the spread is a large fraction of your capital at risk. Pending orders do not protect you from this cost; they simply execute at the next available price.

A data release also changes the spread asymmetrically: the offer side can widen more than the bid if the market is short gamma, or vice versa. For an Australian trader watching the release at 11:30pm AEDT, the practical rule is to wait for the first minute candle to close before entering. By then the spread has tightened from panic levels to a tradable level, and the order book has enough depth to absorb a retail-sized order without excessive slippage.

The difference between a price move and a tradeable move

A price move in gold is any change in the quoted mid-price, but a tradeable move is one that is large enough to cover the spread, any commission, and your exit cost, and still leave a profit. When the XAU/USD price ticks up by 0.10, that is a price move, but if the spread is 0.30, a long position entered and exited immediately loses the spread. The tradeable move must exceed the round-trip cost before you can consider the trade.

A tradeable move also depends on the size you are trading and the depth of the book. A 0.50 move in gold may be tradeable for a 0.10-lot order, but a 1.00-lot order will eat through multiple price levels and may only capture 0.30 of that move. Because one standard lot is 100 ounces, each 0.01 pip is worth A$1.00 in a USD-denominated quote converted to AUD, so the entry and exit slippage on a larger position can erase a small price move entirely.

The distinction matters most around news events, when the price can move several dollars in seconds but the spread and slippage are at their worst. A headline might show gold up 2.00, but the tradeable move for a retail order is often less than half that after costs. The honest way to plan a trade is to subtract the current spread, expected slippage, and any commission from the anticipated price move, and only act if the remainder justifies the risk.

How to read the day before it starts

Start by checking the economic calendar for US data releases, because gold is priced in US dollars and most volatility follows US events. If CPI, non-farm payrolls, or an FOMC statement is due, the Asian session into that release will be quiet, and the spread will widen before the event. The calendar also tells you when London and New York open, which is when the most tradeable moves in XAU/USD occur for an Australian trader.

Next, look at the overnight range in gold and the volume profile to see where the market accepted price. If the Asian session traded in a tight range near the previous day's close, liquidity is likely thin and the first hour of London will determine the day's direction. If the overnight range was wide and impulsive, expect the London open to retest the extremes before trending. The key is not to predict but to identify the conditions that make a move tradeable.

Finally, check the futures market and the US dollar index before the cash session opens, because gold often reacts to moves in the DXY and to changes in COMEX positioning. A strong US dollar in the overnight session will pressure gold at the open, and a weak dollar will support it. For an Australian trader, the day starts around 6:00pm AEDT when Sydney winds down, so reading the London open from 6:00pm to 8:00pm gives you the best information about whether the day's move will be tradeable.

Session liquidity sets the cost of every gold entry

What you pay to enter a gold trade changes with the session because the spread widens when fewer banks are quoting. During the Sydney–Tokyo overlap, XAU/USD can trade on a spread of several pips, while the London and New York sessions typically compress that to a fraction of a pip. The cost you pay is the spread multiplied by the pip value, so a 0.10-lot position pays about $0.01 per 0.01 pip — meaning a 0.5-pip spread costs roughly $0.50, but a 3-pip spread costs $3.00 on the same size.

Liquidity is not the same as volume; it is the depth of resting orders at each price. In thin sessions, even a modest order can move the price past where you wanted to fill, so the effective cost includes slippage on top of the quoted spread. That is why the same 1-lot gold order that clears almost instantly in London can take seconds to fill in early Asia and may execute several pips away from the screen price. The cost depends on the session you trade, the size you send, and how close your order is to the best bid or offer.

A session's liquidity also changes what you pay when you close, because the exit spread is the same market spread you crossed on entry. If you open a gold position during a thin Asian session and close it during London, you pay the wide entry spread and the narrow exit spread, but the reverse is also true. For Australian traders, the early morning AEST window before London opens is often the most expensive time to trade gold, while the late evening AEST window that overlaps New York is usually the cheapest.

A data release widens the spread before the number prints

A data release widens the gold spread because liquidity providers pull their quotes in the seconds before the number is published. For XAU/USD, the spread can jump from under a pip to 5–10 pips or more in the final moments before a US CPI or non-farm payrolls print, then snap back once the first wave of orders is matched. The cost you pay on a market order in that window is the widened spread plus any slippage, which on a 0.10-lot position can turn a routine $0.50 cost into $5.00 or more.

What a data release does to the spread depends on how much the actual number deviates from the consensus forecast. A release that matches expectations often sees the spread normalise within a second or two, while a large surprise can keep the spread wide for several minutes as dealers reprice gold against the US dollar. The spread is not a fixed fee; it is the gap between the best bid and ask at that instant, and during high-impact data that gap reflects the uncertainty of every market maker quoting XAU/USD.

For an Australian trader watching a US data release, the spread reaction is the same as for anyone else because gold is quoted globally, but the local time matters. A 10:30pm AEST US CPI print falls in the Sydney evening, when local bank liquidity is thin, so the spread can stay wider for longer than it would during London hours. The practical rule is that the spread you see before the release is not the spread you will pay if you trade into the number, and the cost is highest when the data surprises.

A price move is not the same as a tradeable move

A price move is the change you see on the chart, while a tradeable move is the part of that change you can actually capture after paying the spread and slippage. If XAU/USD ticks up by 0.20 in a slow Asian session, that is a price move, but if the spread is 0.15, the tradeable move is only 0.05 for a trader who buys and sells immediately. On a 1-lot position, that 0.20 price move is worth $20.00, but the round-trip spread of 0.15 costs $15.00, leaving a $5.00 tradeable move.

The difference between a price move and a tradeable move depends on the session, the size, and the order type. In London, the same 0.20 price move might have a spread of 0.03, making the tradeable move 0.17, or $17.00 on 1 lot. A limit order can capture more of the move because you join the queue instead of crossing the spread, but you risk not being filled if the price never reaches your level. The tradeable move is what remains after you subtract the cost of entering and exiting at the prices that were actually available to you.

For a gold trader on FxPro, the price you see on MT4 or cTrader is the last traded price, not necessarily the price you can trade at right now. The bid-ask spread is the immediate cost, and slippage is the difference between the price you clicked and the price you received. A price move of 0.50 that happens in a single second during a news spike may be entirely untradeable for a market order because the spread and slippage consume the move. The tradeable move is the only number that matters for your profit and loss.