Spread on gold is not the same kind of animal

[Fairman]

Spread on gold is not the same kind of animal

Many forex brokers list gold and silver alongside currency pairs, and plenty of scalpers trade XAUUSD for the movement. The spread behaves differently from any currency pair.

Gold spreads are quoted in cents or points, and the numbers look small until the contract size is considered. A 25-cent spread on a standard lot is 25 dollars. Brokers also vary on whether the spread is fixed, floating, or floating with a minimum.

More important is when it widens. Gold has its own rhythm. It tightens during London and New York hours, widens in the late Asian session, and explodes around US data and Fed speakers. Rollover affects it too, and sometimes the gold market pauses for a short maintenance break at a different hour from forex.

The platform often shows no sign of this until the quote just stops updating for a few seconds.

Scalpers who move from EURUSD to gold sometimes assume the tools carry over. The spread logic does not. Stop distances, position sizing, and the no-trade windows all need recalculating.

How does the gold spread profile differ from the forex pairs being traded, hour by hour?