Trading gold from Iraq
Gold is the market Iraqis know best — and XAUUSD is how you trade it without a vault, a dealer or a premium over spot. Tight spreads, no overnight interest, from $100.
Physical gold versus XAUUSD
In the souk you pay a premium to buy and take a discount to sell, and the spread is measured in percent. Trading XAUUSD, your cost is a spread of cents on an ounce, you can go long or short, and you can be in and out within a minute.
You are trading the price, not the metal — which is exactly what most people wanted in the first place.
| Physical gold | XAUUSD at TNFX | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to trade | Dealer premium + discount | From 15 cents spread |
| Can you sell short? | No | Yes |
| Storage | Your problem | None |
| Minimum | Price of a gram | $100 account |
| Overnight cost | None | None — swap-free |
What one lot of gold actually moves
Gold routinely travels $20 to $40 in a day. On one lot, that is $2,000 to $4,000.
What moves gold, and when
- US inflation and interest-rate news — the biggest single driver
- The dollar — gold is priced in it, so they usually pull against each other
- Risk and conflict — money moves to gold when the world looks unstable
- 01:00–05:00 UTC is the busiest window for our clients — the Asian gold session
Sizing a gold trade properly
One standard lot of XAUUSD is 100 ounces, so a $1 move in gold is $100 on your account. At 1:500 leverage a full lot needs roughly $800 of margin — which is precisely why gold ruins undisciplined accounts.
Work out the pip value and required margin before you click, not after. Our calculators do it in seconds.
Why gold suits the Iraqi trading day
Gold is the most traded instrument on our books from Iraq, and the timing is a large part of why. XAUUSD is liquid around the clock, but its two most active windows are the Asian morning and the London-New York overlap — and both land at usable hours in Baghdad rather than in the middle of the night.
There is a second reason, less about charts. Gold is already the instrument Iraqi savers understand, because physical gold has been a store of value here for generations. Trading XAUUSD is a familiar asset in an unfamiliar wrapper, which is a gentler starting point than a currency pair whose drivers are two foreign central banks.
What actually moves the gold price
The single biggest driver. Gold pays no interest, so when real yields on US government bonds rise, holding gold costs more in forgone income and the price tends to fall. When real yields fall, the reverse. Watch US inflation data and Federal Reserve policy.
Gold is priced in dollars, so a stronger dollar mechanically makes gold more expensive for everyone else and tends to push the price down. The relationship is not perfect but it is persistent.
Gold is where money goes when it is frightened. Escalation anywhere significant tends to produce a sharp move up — often fast, and often partly retraced once the initial fear passes.
Central banks have been substantial net buyers in recent years. This is slow-moving demand that does not show on an intraday chart but sets the background.
Sizing a gold position without getting hurt
Gold moves in dollars per ounce, and a standard lot is 100 ounces. That means a $10 move in the gold price is a $1,000 change in the value of a one-lot position. Gold routinely moves $20 to $40 in a day. This is the single most common way new traders damage an account: they size a gold position as though it were a currency pair, and discover the difference on the first volatile session.
Work backwards instead. Decide the maximum you are willing to lose on the trade, measure the distance to a stop level that makes sense on the chart, and let those two numbers determine the position size. If the resulting size is smaller than a micro lot, the trade is too large for the account, not the other way round.
A Cent account is genuinely useful here. It lets you trade gold at a hundredth of normal position sizes, so you can learn how the instrument behaves with real money at risk without the size that makes a bad week unrecoverable.
Common questions
What is the spread on gold at TNFX?
Typically from 15 cents on the Zero account and from 25 cents on Standard, in normal market conditions.
Is gold trading swap-free?
Yes — no overnight interest is charged or earned on any TNFX account.
What is the minimum to trade gold?
A $100 account. Use the Cent account or small lot sizes to keep risk sensible at that balance.
Can I trade gold on my phone?
Yes — MT4 and MT5 mobile apps, or the browser-based Web Terminal.
What is the symbol for gold?
XAUUSD — the price of one troy ounce of gold in US dollars. XAU is the standard currency code for gold.
How much is one lot of gold?
A standard lot is 100 ounces, so a $1 move in the gold price is $100 on a one-lot position. A $10 move is $1,000. Size accordingly, and consider a Cent account while learning.
When is the best time to trade gold from Iraq?
The London-New York overlap in the Iraqi evening has the deepest liquidity and the tightest spreads. The Asian morning session is also active and falls at a convenient local hour.
Can I trade gold on a swap-free account?
Yes. Islamic status applies to gold as it does to any other instrument, so positions held overnight carry no financing charge.