One metal, three wrappers
All three track the world price of gold, so the big swings line up. GC is the exchange future for one hundred ounces of gold deliverable on a set month. MGC is the micro, a tenth of that at ten ounces, built so smaller accounts can trade the same thing with less nominal size. XAUUSD is a spot contract your broker creates and prices off the underlying market.
Because the exchange future is the deeper, more watched venue, spot tends to follow it rather than lead. When people say gold broke a level, the level usually formed on the future first. The future is the reference and spot is the mirror, close but a step behind in fast conditions.
Basis: why the numbers do not match
GC usually prints a slightly different number than spot, and that difference is the basis. A future settles in the future, so it carries the cost of holding gold to delivery, mostly interest, minus any lease factors. The nearer the contract to expiry, the smaller the gap, and the basis widens or narrows as rates and demand to hold metal shift.
This is why your spot chart and a futures chart can show the same shape at two different price tags. It is not an error. If you plan levels on one and execute on the other, anchor to a single feed, because a fixed basis offset can quietly move your entry by a few dollars.
Hours and the gap that forms at the break
Spot gold is quoted almost continuously between the Sunday night open and the Friday night close in New York, pausing only for a brief maintenance window at the end of the New York day. Futures keep their own session and settlement clock. The two do not pause at the same instant, so news during one venue quiet period can leave a gap that the other has already absorbed.
The practical effect shows at the edges of the day. A move that happened while your spot feed was in its maintenance window appears as a jump when it reopens, while the future had already repriced. Treat those open gaps as catch up, not as a fresh breakout to chase.
Tick size and what a move is worth
Tick size differs, and it changes what each instrument costs to be wrong. On the standard future a minimum tick is a tenth of a dollar, which on one hundred ounces is ten dollars per contract. On the micro the same tick is one dollar, a tenth of the size. Spot is quoted by your broker, often to two decimals, and you define your own pip from that.
- GC: one hundred ounces, a ten point move is roughly one hundred dollars.
- MGC: ten ounces, the same ten point move is roughly ten dollars.
- XAUUSD: broker quoted, size scales with your lot.
Pick the wrapper whose tick value fits your account, not the one with the busiest chart.
Why they diverge for minutes at a time
In calm markets the three are near identical, but a sharp release splits them briefly. Spot and futures have different depth, different participants and different spread behaviour in the first seconds, so one can spike while the other lags by a tick or two. Arbitrage closes the gap fast, usually within moments, which is exactly why the gap is short lived.
For a scalper those seconds matter. A stop placed on the lagging feed can be hit by a wick that never printed on the leading feed. If you trade the open of a data release, watch the venue you execute on, not a second chart, so a cross feed phantom level does not stop you out of a sound idea.
Where the comparison stops being useful
The three are close enough that most swing and intraday structure reads the same on any of them, so arguing over which is truest wastes effort above the one minute chart. The divergences are real but tiny and they resolve quickly, so they only matter to very short term execution and to anyone running a basis or calendar trade.
What the comparison cannot tell you is direction. None of the three is a leading indicator for the others in a way you can trade. They move together because they are the same asset, so reading one against another is housekeeping, not a signal.
How to use this on the chart
Choose one feed as your home chart and plan every level on it so your basis is consistent. If you draw support on the future and trade spot, shift the level by the current offset rather than trusting the raw number. Mark the maintenance break so you expect a catch up gap rather than reacting to it.
Our daily zones are built from one consistent gold feed, so you can lean on them without juggling basis. See how they sit against the current price on the live XAUUSD chart, and for the deeper contract detail read our breakdown of spot gold versus futures.
FAQ
Do XAUUSD and GC move exactly the same?
They move almost identically on any timeframe above a minute because they track the same metal, but they are not identical. A basis gap keeps their price tags apart, their sessions pause at different moments, and in the first seconds of a release one can spike while the other lags. The differences are small and close quickly.
Is MGC just a smaller version of GC?
Yes. MGC is the micro gold future at ten ounces, one tenth of the standard contract at one hundred ounces. It tracks the same price and the same structure, but each tick is worth a tenth as much, so it lets a smaller account trade exchange gold without the full nominal risk of the standard contract.
What is the basis between spot and futures gold?
The basis is the price difference between a gold future and spot. A future settles later, so it carries the cost of holding gold to delivery, mainly interest, which usually makes it trade a little away from spot. The gap narrows as the contract nears expiry and shifts as rates and metal demand change.
Which should a small account trade?
That depends on tick value, not on the chart. The micro future and a small spot lot both let you keep risk low, while the standard future moves about one hundred dollars per ten point tick and is heavy for a thin balance. Pick the wrapper whose value per tick your risk budget can absorb comfortably.
ⓘ See these ideas on real price: open the free XAUUSD live chart.