XAUUSD Live Chart
On this page, you will learn how to trade gold online. First, we begin with factors affecting gold prices (XAUUSD). Then, we shall look at gold trading hours and the best way to invest in or trade gold. Finally, we shall also answer the questions asked by most beginners.
Gold Price Chart Today
Gold Market Trading Hours
Most new gold investors start out asking, what time does the gold market open? The short answer is that the gold markets are open 24 hours a day, five days a week. A more detailed answer is that there are no gold trading hours because the yellow metal is not traded on a central exchange like stocks. The largest gold markets are the futures markets and the physical gold markets where traders buy gold bullion. You can access the futures markets via a broker to trade gold futures.
Therefore, as a trader, you should know that there is no gold market open time or a gold market close.
Traders have the opportunity to place and close gold trades at any time simply because the gold markets are open 24 hours, five days a week. However, there are better times to place trades compared to others. For example, some of the best gold trading hours are found during the European and American trading sessions, usually the market’s busiest hours. On the other hand, the Asian session is typically regarded as a much quieter session, given that only a small number of Asian exchanges are open at this time.
By trading gold during the busiest market hours, you will find plenty of trading opportunities compared to trading when the markets are tranquil.
Should You Trade Gold? Is Gold Trading Still Profitable?
If you are wondering, is gold a good investment now? The short answer is gold is still a good investment now and will likely continue to be a good investment in the foreseeable future.
Gold is still a good investment today because the yellow metal has intrinsic value, unlike some current investment fads such as meme stocks and cryptocurrencies. In addition, gold has long been regarded as a safe-haven asset, which retains its value when inflation erodes the value of other asset classes. Thus, while some might argue that gold prices have not risen much despite the rising global inflation, the metal remains a crucial component of most investors’ portfolios.
If you are asking, should I buy gold now? Well, the answer is that it depends on your investment goals. If you want to hold gold for multiple years and benefit from rising gold prices, then you can expect average gains. However, if you want to profit from short-term swings in gold prices as a swing trader, you could make significant gains trading gold. But high returns also follow higher risk.
Beginner investors usually ask, is gold a safe investment? The answer is yes. Gold is one of the safest investments out there because it is a physical commodity market. However, it still sees large price swings, which, if managed well, can be used to produce above-average returns.
What about the future of gold?
What Affects the Price of Gold?
As you start to trade, you might wonder, how is gold priced? Well, the price of gold is primarily determined by the forces of supply and demand. Periods when demand for gold is high and the supply is low usually lead to higher gold prices. However, the opposite is true of periods when the supply of gold is high and the demand is low as prices tend to fall.
As a physical commodity, gold has actual uses, such as making jewelry and making electronics, as a form of money and investment purposes, hence why the forces of demand and supply determine the metal’s price.
Another critical factor that affects the price of gold is inflation, with most investors being aware of the gold price vs inflation debate. In theory, gold prices are expected to rise in tandem with inflation as investors stockpile the metal to hedge against the devaluation of fiat currencies.
Other factors that could cause gold prices to rise include political instability, quickly triggering a spike in gold prices. For example, the trade war between the United States and China was a massive boon for gold prices, which rose throughout 2019 and a considerable part of 2020.
Gold price fluctuations could also be driven by the accumulation of gold reserves by Central Banks globally as a hedge against inflation and prop up their currencies’ value. In addition, countries with volatile currencies have been stockpiling gold to stabilize the value of their local currencies.
Most Central Banks buy gold to diversify their treasury holdings from the typical foreign currencies they hold on behalf of their governments. Therefore, they are a vast source of gold demand after buying 650 tons of gold in 2020.
Over time, the overall gold price trend has been up, with the yellow metal currently trading above $1,700 compared to a mere $100, 50 years ago.
Investors wondering what causes gold prices to fall may be surprised to learn that gold prices typically fall during periods of economic and political stability. In such cases, most people do not feel the need to buy gold as a hedge against inflation, given the current stable economic and political environment.
US Dollar
The US dollar has a significant impact on the gold price, given that the two are categorized as safe-have assets and compete for investment capital. As a result, investors have to choose between investing in gold and the US dollar, depending on market conditions.
In most cases, investors will buy gold if the US dollar is falling to protect the value of their investments, given that a falling dollar usually coincides with rising inflation. Investors also tend to buy more dollars if the reserve currency rises, which typically coincides with falling gold prices.
Therefore, we can say that the US dollar and gold are opposites in that gold prices usually benefit from a fling dollar, while the dollar benefits from falling gold prices.
Weekly gold price chart
The weekly gold price chart above shows how gold prices rose from October 2018 to August 2020, marking a significant bull trend.
Trading Gold CFDs vs Invest Physical Gold
Which One is Right for You?
Trading as a beginner, you might be wondering how you can trade gold after hearing about its qualities as a safe-haven asset. You can trade or invest in gold using various methods, but the most common is not buying and selling physical gold but trading gold products online.
Buying and holding physical gold is a cumbersome process that requires you to store actual gold, which could put you at risk of being targeted. Therefore, for most investors, the best way to trade and invest in gold is via online instruments such as gold CFDs, stocks, and ETFs.
What is a gold CFD?
Gold CFD refers to tradable instruments offered by most Forex and CFD brokers that track the underlying prices of the yellow metal. Gold CFDs trading allow you to trade gold without buying an ounce of gold, which trades at over $1700. Instead, you can buy fractions of gold for a few dollars and try to profit from the constant changes in gold prices. You can also bet on falling gold prices without having to deposit vast amounts of capital and margin with a traditional broker
As a trader, you might have heard of the term paper gold and may be wondering, what is paper gold? Paper gold refers to all the digital representations of gold traders by millions of investors from all over the world. For example, gold CFDs are paper gold, gold futures are paper gold, among others. However, gold stocks are not paper gold because they represent the shares of gold mining companies, not actual gold. Therefore, paper gold refers to instruments that track the actual price of physical gold.
So, how can you trade gold CFDs? The easiest way to trade gold CFDs is to open an account with a regulated broker that offers gold CFDs as a tradable asset. You should choose a licensed broker by a tier 1 regulator like the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Your chosen broker should offer fair spreads, fast execution speeds, and 24/5 customer support.
Some Forex brokers offer gold-stock CFDs for traders interested in trading gold stocks that allow you to bet on rising and falling gold prices readily. In addition, trading gold stocks as CFDs allow you to get started trading with minimal costs, compared to trading the actual gold stocks with a traditional stockbroker.
Differences between trading gold CFDs and Physical Gold
| Trading gold CFDs | Trading Physical Gold |
|---|---|
| 1.It can be bought and sold quickly without requiring physical storage. | 1.One must figure out how to store the physical gold due to security risks. |
| 2.It can be traded in small quantities. | 2.Must be bought in the form of physical gold bars or jewelry. |
| 3.One can profit from rising and falling gold prices. | 3.One can only profit from rising gold prices while booking losses as prices fall. |
Step-by-step: How to Trade Gold Online?
Most trading beginners usually find themselves stuck figuring out how to buy and sell gold commodities online. This section shall detail how you can buy and sell gold on the popular MetaTrader 4 platform. We shall also briefly touch on becoming a successful gold trader. To get started, we shall look at the gold trading symbol. Most trading platforms will list gold under the ticker symbol XAUUSD, the price of gold quoted in US dollars. The symbol XAU stands for gold and is derived from its chemical formula AU, while USD stands for the US dollar.
Trading gold CFDs online will require you to open a trading account with a reputable CFDs broker. Once you have opened a brokerage account, you can deposit funds into the account and start trading gold CFDs.
The buttons at the top left corner represent the buy and sell buttons.
You can easily buy and sell gold CFDs on the ATFX MetaTrader 4 application by clicking on the above buttons. The process is quite simple as the chart is linked to your trading account and you will be trading your own funds if it’s a live account, or virtual funds if it is a demo account. In between the buttons you choose the amount of gold that you would like to buy or sell. After the position is open you can place a protective stop-loss order, and a take profit order, so you leave the software to manage the position on your behalf.
Why Trade Gold with ATFX?
A Golden Opportunity!
Always Online
Trade Anywhere
No Commission
Trading gold with ATFX allows you to trade gold CFDs with low spreads; hence you get to keep most of your profits. You also get to profit from rising and falling prices by taking trades in either direction without having to post a significant margin.
Trading gold with ATFX gives you a golden opportunity due to the deep liquidity offered by the broker; hence, you can quickly get into and out of massive positions. In addition, gold prices tend to fluctuate significantly daily, offering gold traders multiple opportunities daily.
You also get access to metals trading 23 hours five days a week as the markets are closed for one hour daily to allow for settling transactions.
ATFX’s gold traders can trade the yellow metal from anywhere in the world so long as they have an internet connection. You can trade on the go using the MT4 mobile and web platforms.
ATFX does not charge a commission on gold trades; hence, you can trade gold commission-free with only a small spread.
Gold Trading Strategy for Beginners and Advanced Gold Traders
Most trading beginners are always looking for the best way to trade gold with the mindset that there is a strategy with zero losing trades. Unfortunately, there is no gold trading strategy that does not have some losing trades.
However, traders can learn how to buy and sell gold for a profit by following the gold trading basics, such as being aware of global geopolitical events. Another critical component of trading gold successfully is to have a trading strategy built on technical analysis that allows you to identify the best trading opportunities.
You can trade gold using various instruments such as gold futures and CFDs, options and gold stocks. However, the most popular gold trading instruments are gold futures and CFDs.
Always Trade With the Trend
Time Frame Selection
The Time Frame you trade is also a crucial part of your overall trading strategy. You should choose a trading timeframe that is aligned with your schedule. Those who do not have a lot of time to sit on their computer during the day should focus on trading the 4-hour and daily timeframes.
Traders who have constant access to the markets and can trade during the day could be successful day traders.
Those who are trading the markets as a side hustle should also utilize the higher time frames such as the 4-hour and daily charts.
Support and Resistance
The first step is to identify potential trade areas such as support and resistance zones, which you can use to place your trades. You can then take bullish trades when the price bounces off support while executing bearish trades when the price bounces off resistance.
The chart below shows two support lines drawn on the daily gold chart. The first support line has been broken several times in the past and does not represent a good trade location.
On the other hand, the second support level has held for multiple months and is a solid level that is likely to hold in future. Well, the price is approaching the level at the time of writing, and it is likely that it will hold this time as well.
Gold support levels.
Other Tips
Always keep abreast of what is happening in the global political arena and the stocks and currencies markets since some of these events significantly affect gold prices.
Beginner traders should keep in mind that every trading strategy has losing trades and streaks, which they should not be afraid of if they want to become successful traders over the long term.
Let your broker do the heavy lifting
Some brokers, such as ATFX, will send you daily gold trading tips and strategies issued by their trading experts, but it will still be up to you to implement the online trading strategies correctly. Still, you should remember that even the top traders have losing trades. With ATFX, you have access to Trading Central and Autochartists, which are premium add ons to the popular MetaTrader 4 platform that improve your overall trading experience. You can use both add-ons as a source of trading ideas.
You should always backtest your chosen trading strategy to ensure that it has worked in the past, which increases the chances that it will work in future. Another commonly overlooked aspect of trading is a trader’s mindset. You should constantly work on your mindset to help you hold on to your winners for longer while quickly cutting your losing trades short.
Having a solid mindset will contribute significantly to your trading success than having a high win rate with a trading strategy.
Start Gold Trading in 3 Simple Steps
Register for an account
Open your account
Complete the Live Trading Account application form. Once we have verified identity, we will set up your account.
Fund your account
Start trading
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, gold is still very relevant today and investors should not hesitate to invest in the yellow metal, which still acts as a safe-haven asset to date.
Yes, Gold trades 24 hours a day five days a week, but the gold futures markets are usually closed over the weekend. Hence, you cannot open new gold trades over the weekend, but you can hold your open trades over the weekend.
The best way to invest in gold is via gold CFDs, which you can trade with a small account. CFD trading allows you to profit from both falling and rising gold prices.
Yes, beginners can successfully trade gold by following the strategies outlined here on this page as well as on other parts of our website.
You can invest in both gold and silver, which are extremely important commodities within the global economy. Silver is a much cheaper and less volatile asset compared to gold. Therefore, you are likely to have more trading opportunities in gold than silver.
The best way to practice and get better at gold trading is by opening a demo account that allows you to trade gold without risking your own cash. You should document all your trades so that you can identify areas that need improvement.
You can open a live account here.
