Gold, XAU/USD: daily range, busy hours and key numbers

XAU/USD at a glance

Pip size

$0.10 of priceA $10 move is 100 pips

Contract, one standard lot

100 ounces1.00 lot; 0.01 lot is a hundredth of it

Pip value, one standard lot

$10For a US dollar account, at any price

Highest price in the sample

4,972.35Fri 17 April 2026, 14:13 UK

Lowest price in the sample

3,908.73Tue 30 June 2026, 02:07 UK

Change over the sample

Down 7.21%First to last price, 26 March to 25 September 2026

Median daily range

986 pipsAbout $99, 2.17% of the previous close

Average daily range

1,051 pipsAbout $105, 2.39% of the previous close

Full trading days

13017:00 to 17:00 New York, Monday to Friday

How far gold moves in a day

The median day moved 986 pips, about $99: half of the 130 full days had a smaller range and half a larger one. The quietest 10% of days moved 616 pips or less and the busiest 10% moved 1,603 pips or more. The average, pulled up by the largest days, was 1,051 pips.

By weekday, the median range was largest on Wednesdays (1,139 pips) and smallest on Mondays (854 pips), from 26 days of each weekday.

XAU/USD hour by hour, in UK time

By median range, the three busiest hours were 14:00 (278 pips), 15:00 (252) and 02:00 (248), and the quietest 21:00 (88), 23:00 (110) and 05:00 (115). Each figure is the median range of one clock hour in UK time, from 103 to 131 weekdays depending on the hour, counting only hours with at least 50 one-minute prices.

The 02:00 hour was busier than any other hour of the UK night from 00:00 to 06:00. During BST, 02:00 UK is 10:00 in Tokyo and 09:00 in Shanghai and Singapore.

Gold stops trading from 22:00 to 23:00 UK, its daily break (17:00 to 18:00 New York), so nothing fills in that hour: no entries, no stops, no targets. The forex pairs trade through it.

XAU/USD by trading session

Sessions here are local business hours, Monday to Friday in each city. By median range, XAU/USD moved most in the London session (608 pips) and least in Sydney (513 pips). Each session is nine hours long and they overlap, so one move can count in two of them; the London and New York overlap is four hours.

Where the day's high and low were set

We split each trading day into four UK blocks and counted where its high and its low were set. Out of 130 full days, both the high and the low came most often in 22:00 to 08:00 UK (62 and 59 days). The first block, 22:00 to 08:00, is the longest at ten hours, nine of them trading hours after the daily break; the others are five, four and five hours.

XAU/USD on NFP, CPI and Fed days

Every release in the sample

Range in pips in the first 15 and 60 minutes from the release minute, gold pips at $0.10 of price.

The overnight range, London and the previous day

We split each trading day at 08:00 UK: the overnight range runs from the start of the day (23:00 UK) to 08:00, and London from 08:00 to 17:00. Over 130 days, London went above the overnight high without breaking the overnight low on 51, broke only the low on 51, broke both on 15 and stayed inside the overnight range on 13. By noon UK, 38 days had broken only the high, 44 only the low and 48 neither; none had broken both. The median overnight range was 537 pips and the median London range 608 pips.

Against the previous day, over 128 days that followed a full day, XAU/USD traded above the previous high but not below the previous low on 44, below the previous low only on 55, through both on 14 and stayed inside the previous day's range on 15.

How gold moved with other markets

This is the correlation of daily changes, close to close: 129 changes, from the 130 days present in all eight markets from 26 March to 25 September 2026. XAU/USD's strongest positive figure was with XAG/USD (+0.80) and its strongest negative figure with USD/CHF (-0.63).

Gold over the long run

Everything above comes from six months of one-minute prices. For the decades behind them, our gold history pieces use the World Bank's monthly average gold prices from January 1960 to September 2026; a monthly average is not the highest price gold traded at in that month.

• Gold price history since 1960The long runs and falls in gold's monthly average price.
• Gold price by year: annual averages from 1960 to 2026Every year's average and its change on the year before.
• Is there a best month for gold?Gold's change by calendar month, with the up and down counts.
• Gold price adjusted for inflation since 1960Gold's monthly average adjusted for US consumer prices.

Our signals on XAU/USD

These figures load from our published record each time the page opens, from the same feed as the results page.

Tools for XAU/USD

• Pip value calculatorXAU/USD preselected, in your account currency
• Gold lot size calculatorSize a gold signal from its entry and stop
• Profit calculatorMoney at the stop and each target on XAU/USD
• Margin calculatorThe margin an XAU/USD position needs
• Risk reward calculatorReward against risk for any signal
• Forex market hoursWhich sessions are open now, in your time

Related reading

• How far does gold move in a day? XAU/USD's daily rangeIn pips and dollars, by weekday and by month.
• What time does gold move most? Its range, UK hour by hourEvery UK hour of gold's day, measured.
• What gold does on NFP, CPI and Fed days, minute by minuteEach US jobs, inflation and Fed release in the sample.
• Does London break gold's overnight range? 130 days countedHow often London trades through the overnight high or low.
• Gold and the US dollar: how XAU/USD moved with the majorsGold's daily changes against each dollar pair.
• The gold to silver ratio in 2026, and how silver tradesThe two metals side by side through the sample.
• Average daily range of the major pairs and gold in 2026Each market's daily range, side by side.
• Forex correlation table: gold and the major pairs in 2026Which markets moved together, and how closely.

How we measured

We measured every full trading day, 17:00 to 17:00 New York, from one-minute prices, using UK clock hours and medians for typical figures. Every range is the high minus the low, leaving out the first bar after any pause of more than five minutes, whose stitched open carries the price from before the pause.

One-minute prices: GetData free sample, MIT licence, 26 March to 25 September 2026. The full method and its limits.