How Much Does It Really Cost to Trade One Lot of Gold? The Full Calculation

Most traders know their spread. Few know their total cost per trade. On one standard lot of gold, the gap between the two can be the difference between a strategy that works and one that does not.

The five costs

One lot, worked through

One standard lot of XAUUSD is 100 ounces, so every 1-dollar move in gold is 100 dollars. Using the pip convention on this site (1 pip = 0.10 dollars), one pip is 10 dollars per lot. The pip value calculator does this for any size.

A day trade on a standard account

• Spread 0.30 dollars → 30 dollars
• Commission → 0
• Swap → 0 (closed the same day)
• Average slippage on the stop or exit, say 0.10 dollars → 10 dollars
• Total: about 40 dollars per lot

A five-day swing trade on a raw account, held through one triple-swap day

• Spread 0.12 dollars → 12 dollars
• Commission 7 dollars round trip → 7 dollars
• Swap: 7 nights at an illustrative −6 dollars → 42 dollars
• Slippage → 0 (limit entry, limit exit)
• Total: about 61 dollars per lot

Your numbers will be different. The point is that swap, not spread, is the largest cost for the swing trade.

Cost as a share of what you are trying to make

A cost of 40 dollars per lot is 0.40 dollars of gold movement. If your average winning trade captures 2 dollars, costs take 20% of it. If it captures 10 dollars, they take 4%.

This is why scalping gold on a wide-spread account is so hard: the cost is a large slice of a small target. See the risk-reward calculator and include costs in the reward side.

How to cut each cost

• Spread trade during the London and New York overlap; compare account types (commission vs spread).
• Swap shorten holding periods or close before the triple-swap day.
• Slippage avoid market orders around releases (slippage on gold).
• Conversion use a USD account if you trade mostly XAUUSD.

How our rating uses this

The cost pillar of our broker rating is the median round-trip cost of one standard lot, measured on live accounts at three fixed times a day. It is left blank until measured.

Questions traders ask

What is the cheapest way to trade gold? For small, short-term trades, a raw-spread account at a broker with tight XAUUSD pricing. For long holding periods, products without daily swaps, such as ETFs, may be cheaper.

Does lot size change the cost per lot? No; costs scale with size. A 0.10 lot costs a tenth of the figures above.

Is swap charged on the full position or the margin? On the full position size, which is why it adds up on leveraged trades.