How to size a gold trade
Risk budget ÷ loss per lot at the stop, rounded down to the broker's step: $100 ÷ $500 = 0.20 lots.
The default example, worked
For a USD account trading a linear gold CFD quoted in USD per ounce, divide your risk budget by the estimated loss per lot, then round down to the broker's volume step. Check the minimum and maximum volumes before treating that number as an executable size. At the basic defaults, a $10,000 account with 1% planned risk has a $100 budget. A $5-per-ounce stop on a 100-ounce contract loses $500 per lot before costs, so the estimate is 0.20 lots. The default does not check a broker maximum or include transaction costs.
Gold lot size table by account size and stop
Lots at 1% risk per trade: a 100-ounce contract, rounded down to a 0.01 lot step, before spread, commission and slippage.
| Account (1% risk) | $2 stop | $5 stop | $10 stop | $20 stop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $100 ($1) | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 2%) | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 5%) | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 10%) | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 20%) |
| $500 ($5) | 0.02 lot | 0.01 lot | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 2%) | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 4%) |
| $1,000 ($10) | 0.05 lot | 0.02 lot | 0.01 lot | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 2%) |
| $5,000 ($50) | 0.25 lot | 0.10 lot | 0.05 lot | 0.02 lot |
| $10,000 ($100) | 0.50 lot | 0.20 lot | 0.10 lot | 0.05 lot |
What "below 0.01 lot" means, and the rule behind every row
A stop of $5 means a $5 move in gold's price per ounce. "Below 0.01 lot" means even the minimum lot would risk more than 1%; the bracket shows how much.
Every row follows the same rule: on a 100-ounce contract, 0.01 lot loses $1 for each $1 move, so the largest stop 0.01 lot can carry is the risk budget in dollars. A $100 account at 1% fits 0.01 lot only with a stop of $1 or less. Your broker's contract size, minimum lot and lot step are the authority; a 10-ounce or 1-ounce symbol changes every cell.
Lot size at 0.5%, 1% and 2% risk
The same accounts with a $5 stop: doubling the risk doubles the size, and the loss if the stop is hit.
| Account ($5 stop) | 0.5% risk | 1% risk | 2% risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100 | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 5%) · $0.50 budget | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 5%) · $1 budget | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 5%) · $2 budget |
| $500 | below 0.01 lot (0.01 lot risks 1%) · $2.50 budget | 0.01 lot · $5 budget | 0.02 lot · $10 budget |
| $1,000 | 0.01 lot · $5 budget | 0.02 lot · $10 budget | 0.04 lot · $20 budget |
| $5,000 | 0.05 lot · $25 budget | 0.10 lot · $50 budget | 0.20 lot · $100 budget |
| $10,000 | 0.10 lot · $50 budget | 0.20 lot · $100 budget | 0.40 lot · $200 budget |
Planned risk is not a loss limit
Doubling the risk percentage doubles the budget and, before rounding, the lot size; it also doubles the loss if the stop is hit. Planned risk is not a loss limit: a gap or slippage past the stop can make the loss larger.
What one pip is worth on 0.01 lot of gold
The pip value calculator's XAUUSD preset calls $0.10 a pip: 0.01 lot × 100 oz × $0.10 = $0.10 per pip.
Stops in dollars, stops in pips
This page sizes from a stop distance in dollars, so it needs no pip convention. If you think in pips, say which move you mean. At $0.10 a pip, a 50-pip stop is a $5 move. Counting $0.01 as a pip gives $0.01 per pip on 0.01 lot, and a $1 move is $1.
Copy your symbol's actual specifications
In MT5: Market Watch → right-click the gold symbol → Specification; copy contract size and volume limits.
Which fields, and why a 10-ounce contract changes the answer
In MT5, open Market Watch, right-click the exact gold symbol and choose Specification. Inspect Contract size, Volume minimum, Volume maximum and Volume step. Enable the broker-specification mode above and copy those values. Symbol suffixes and account types can have different specifications; the calculator does not infer them from a broker name. A 10-ounce contract with the same $5 stop has $50 of price-move loss per lot, rather than $500. All else equal, its raw position size would be 2.00 lots. That comparison is arithmetic, not a claim that your broker offers either contract.
MetaTrader 5: symbol specifications ↗ · MetaQuotes: contract size and volume properties ↗
Use stop distance or planned execution prices
A stop distance of 5 means $5 per ounce; or enter entry and stop prices with Buy or Sell.
A worked price-input check
A stop distance of 5 means a $5 change in gold's price per ounce. It does not mean 5 pips, 5 points or a $5 loss for the account. Alternatively, enter planned entry and stop prices, plus Buy or Sell. For a buy position, the stop-loss exit price must be below entry; for a sell position, it must be above entry. Equal or reversed prices do not produce a position size. The calculator supplies no current market quote and does not convert a chart's bid price into an ask execution price.
Try this hypothetical price-input check with the basic 100-ounce contract and 0.01-lot step; it excludes commission, slippage and a broker maximum:
- Set balance to 10,000 and risk to 1%. Choose Entry and stop prices, then Buy.
- Enter 3000.30 for entry and 2995.00 for the planned stop exit. The distance is $5.30 per ounce, so loss per lot is $530.
- The $100 budget gives 0.188679… raw lots: 0.18 lots after flooring, with $95.40 estimated loss. Switching to Stop distance and entering 5.30 should give the same result.
If the entry is an Ask quote of 3000.30 against a starting Bid of 3000.00, that $0.30 spread is already in the distance to the planned 2995.00 exit. Do not add it again in broker mode. MetaTrader checks a long stop against Bid and a short stop against Ask; the actual fill can differ from the trigger price. MetaQuotes: deals and stop-loss orders ↗
Include costs once
Loss per lot = (stop + allowance) × ounces + round-trip commission; never count the same spread twice.
The broker-mode formula, with an example
In broker mode, estimated loss per lot = (stop distance + additional price allowance) × contract ounces + round-trip commission. Use the additional allowance for adverse spread or slippage movement not already included in the execution prices. Round-trip commission is the total to open and close 1.00 lot in USD; a $3-per-side quote becomes $6 here. These inputs must be zero or positive. Zero explicitly leaves that cost out. Do not count the same spread in both the prices and the allowance.
For example, a $100 risk budget, a $5 stop, a $0.50 additional price allowance, 100 ounces per lot and $6 round-trip commission imply $556 of estimated loss per lot. The raw size is about 0.179856 lots. At a 0.01 step it becomes 0.17 lots, with an estimated loss of $94.52. All figures in this example are hypothetical inputs.
Why a result can be smaller, or absent
Sizes round down to the step and stop at the maximum; the tool never rounds up to the minimum.
Rounding, limits and what the estimate leaves out
A raw size of 0.125 lots at a 0.01 step becomes 0.12, not 0.13. A maximum of 0.105 allows at most 0.10 on that step. If the smallest allowed step multiple at or above the minimum costs more than the budget, no executable size is shown. The tool never raises an under-sized result to the minimum. Recheck the specifications and the trade plan rather than rounding up. Volume limits are per order; this calculation does not inspect existing orders or exposure.
The result is an estimate under your inputs. Actual fills, spread changes, swap and other unentered fees can change the loss. Margin, available funds, stop-distance restrictions and account currency conversion are outside this calculation. Use USD balances rather than cent-account display units. Inputs support up to eight decimal places; the balance limit is $1 billion, risk must be above 0% and at most 100%, and other numeric inputs and calculated volume are capped at one million in their labelled units.
Read the XAUUSD lot-size and contract guide → · Size a forex trade using pip value → · Calculate drawdown recovery →