How to Calculate Your Profit and Loss on XAUUSD

The one line formula

The result of any gold trade is price move times contract size times lots, minus costs. Contract size for a full lot is one hundred ounces. So profit equals the dollar distance between entry and exit, multiplied by one hundred, multiplied by the number of lots you held, with the spread and swap taken off the top.

Direction only changes which way you subtract. A long trade earns when price rises, so the move is exit price minus entry price. A short trade earns when price falls, so the move is entry price minus exit price. Keep the move positive for a winner and negative for a loser, and the formula handles both without any special cases.

A worked long example

Say you buy a tenth of a lot and gold rises fifteen dollars before you close. A tenth of a lot is ten ounces of contract size. The gross result is fifteen multiplied by ten, which is one hundred and fifty dollars.

Now take the costs off. If your broker quoted a thirty cent spread on entry, you paid thirty cents times ten ounces, which is three dollars, the moment you opened. Hold overnight and a swap charge applies too. The clean number is one hundred and fifty minus three minus swap. The gross figure looked round, but the figure that lands in the account is always the net one.

A worked short example

Now you sell two tenths of a lot and gold falls eight dollars. Two tenths of a lot is twenty ounces. Because you are short, the move counts as entry minus exit, so a drop is a gain. The gross result is eight multiplied by twenty, which is one hundred and sixty dollars.

The cost side does not care about direction. You still paid the spread on entry, and if the position sat through the daily rollover you were charged or credited swap on the short side. Shorts and longs often carry different swap because the two currencies in the pair pay different rates, so never assume the short costs the same as the long did.

What a pip is worth on gold

Gold does not have an official pip, so define your own and stay with it. Many brokers quote two decimals and traders call a ten cent move ten points or one pip. The value is simply contract size times that move.

• At 0.01 lot you hold one ounce, so the price moving one dollar changes your balance by one dollar.
• A tenth of a lot is ten ounces: a one dollar move is ten dollars.
• A full lot is one hundred ounces: a one dollar move is one hundred dollars.
• A ten cent move on a full lot is ten dollars.

Once you know the per ounce value, you can size any trade so a fixed dollar risk matches your stop distance.

Subtract the spread before you celebrate

The spread is the distance separating the bid you can sell at from the ask you must pay to buy, and you hand it over the instant you enter. On gold it widens around the New York data releases and in thin late sessions, so the identical plan costs more at some hours than at others.

Convert the spread to money the same way you convert a move: spread times contract size times lots. A forty cent spread on half a lot is forty cents times fifty ounces, which is twenty dollars gone before price has moved your way at all. For a scalper taking many small trades, this tax decides whether a real edge survives. Our post on what the spread really costs walks through how fast it compounds.

Swap and the midweek triple charge

Rollover, which most brokers label swap, is applied once a day to anything still open when the broker pauses the book at the New York close. It reflects the interest difference between holding gold and holding dollars, and it can be a credit or a debit depending on direction.

Most brokers book three days of swap on Wednesday to account for the weekend settlement, so a position held across Wednesday evening pays triple. For a scalper who is flat every day this never matters. For a swing trader holding for a week, swap can quietly turn a small winner into a loss, so build it into the plan rather than discovering it on the statement.

Where calculators mislead you

A profit calculator is only as honest as the costs you feed it. The common mistakes all point the same way, making the trade look better than it was.

• Using the mid price instead of your real fill, which ignores the spread entirely.
• Forgetting swap on multi day holds, especially the Wednesday triple.
• Mixing up lot and ounce, so a tenth of a lot gets valued as a full one.
• Pricing a short as if the swap matched the long side.

Run the number by hand once for a trade you actually took, compare it against the account, and you will see exactly which input your tool is skipping.

How to use this on the chart

Before you click, turn the plan into money. Read the stop distance off the chart in dollars, multiply it by the ounces you hold, and the result is the amount at risk. Do the same to the target, then take the spread off both sides so the reward you are chasing is the net one.

Doing this at the setup stage, not after the close, keeps your size honest and stops the spread from eating a thin edge. When you plan levels on the live chart, read the dollar value of the move first and let that decide whether the trade is even worth the cost.