How To Trade Gold: Is This Metal Precious for Traders?

Commodities aren’t among the first financial instruments you consider when you first start trading. However, many of them could be really an attractive investment — for example, metals such as gold. When you hear about gold, for sure, you imagine jewelry or gold bars. But did you know you can trade gold on a trading platform without owning it? We are ready to uncover the pros and cons of gold trading and share tips on how to make gold trading potentially profitable.

What Is Gold Trading?

When you trade gold, you don’t get real bullion but speculate on the underlying asset’s price via a spot price speculation, futures contract, or options. Also, you can trade stock CFDs of gold-mining companies and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Trading may allow you to make a profit regardless of whether the price of the instrument rises or falls. While investing implies putting money in an asset that is expected to increase in value in the future, trading is about making a correct prediction about the asset’s price direction.

If you’ve ever traded currencies on Forex, it won’t be difficult for you to trade gold, as the idea is the same. You deposit funds in your brokerage account and open and close positions, thus, gaining profit or bearing losses. You can use a margin account and increase your initial deposit with leverage, meaning that you can start trading with just $100.

How To Invest and Trade Gold: Numerous Financial Instruments

Below, you can see the most common ways to invest in the gold market.

What Moves Gold Prices?

As the success of trades depends on the correctness of your forecasts, you should always know what affects the price of the asset you trade. Let’s discuss what can affect the direction of the gold rate.

Supply and demand determine the price of any financial instrument. If the supply increases, the rate declines. When the demand rises, the price moves up, too. All the factors mentioned below will affect supply and demand to some degree, defining the gold price.

• Safe-haven investment. There are several safe-haven assets that serve as a refuge for investors. Such assets rise in value in times of market uncertainties, as investors need to hedge their funds. So they look for reliable instruments that provide certainty and stable income. Gold is among such assets. Any time there are economic or political issues, the gold price rises. For instance, the price of gold skyrocketed by over 13% from January to May 2020 due to uncertainties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Still, it doesn’t mean that gold will depreciate as soon as the market mood is optimistic; its value will be just stable.
• Industrial needs. Gold is used not only for jewelry but also for technology and investments. When demand for the metal increases in any of the industries, its price rises. Thus, you should know that demand for jewelry and electronics may fall in times of market uncertainty, pulling gold’s price down.
• Production. The largest part of the gold supply is provided by mining — so, news about gold mine discoveries will push the asset’s price up. Gold can also be supplied by jewelry and technology recycling. Traders should check data reflecting any information about gold mining and recycling.
• USD. As traders prefer CFD trading via the XAU/USD pair, the strength of the US dollar will define the direction of the gold price. When the USD declines, the XAU/USD pair will increase in value and vice versa. It’s worth mentioning that the Federal Reserve monetary policy also affects the gold rate. When the central bank signals an interest rate hike, the gold price moves down. When the Fed is dovish and plans to cut the interest rate, the gold price is expected to increase.

Trading vs. Investing in Gold

Trading and investing are different approaches. Trading allows you to make a profit on both price appreciation and depreciation. At the same time, when you invest in an asset, you should be sure the asset will appreciate in the near future. Otherwise, you will end up with losses.

How To Start Trading Gold

If you have chosen gold trading over gold investing, here are some steps that should be followed to have successful trades.

Step 1. Choose a Trading Platform and Create an Account

Being equipped with trading strategies and knowledge about the factors that affect the direction of the gold market is not enough to succeed in gold trading. You should find a reliable trading platform that is controlled by legal authorities, has a user-friendly interface, and provides 24/7 support. The NAGA trading platform could be just what you’re looking for.

To open a trading account, you need to fill out a registration form. On the NAGA platform, before you open a real account, you can sign up for a demo account — if you are a beginner trader, you can try out CFD trading. And if you have some experience, you can hone your strategies. As soon as you are verified, you are ready to proceed with a real account, you will need to pass the KYC procedure, providing the platform with your personal information, financial background, and trading knowledge. NAGA wants to be sure you are skilled enough to deal with real markets.

Only after you pass the KYC procedure, you will be able to deposit funds to open your first trade. Remember to upload scans of your documents, so your account will be fully approved.

Step 2. Practice a Gold Trading Strategy

As we mentioned above, you can use a demo account to practice various technical indicators, find patterns, apply numerous trading strategies, and develop your own trading strategy. If you are not experienced enough to develop your own trading strategy, you can use those listed on the internet. However, it’s recommended to build your own approach.

You can use technical indicators implemented on the NAGA platform and check NAGA Academy, where you can find useful materials about trading tools.

Step 3. Open Your First Trade

By trading gold, you can open long (buy) and short (sell) positions. Before you open a trade, you should forecast the price direction. You can trade on various timeframes - from 1 minute to 1 month.

NAGA allows traders to open market and limit orders. A market order will be opened immediately at the current price. In contrast, a limit order is opened only when the price reaches the level you have defined. Depending on your prediction, you can place an order by clicking only one button.

Step 4. Monitor the Market

Although it’s advisable to set take-profit and stop-loss orders when opening a trade, you should always monitor the news and the market. The take-profit order shows at what level your position should be closed, so you gain profit. The stop-loss order is set to limit losses in case your prediction was inaccurate, and the price moved in the direction you didn’t expect. However, the world changes too fast. Vital economic and political events can change the price direction immediately. Thus, you should stay up-to-date to avoid unbearable losses.

Gold Trading Tips

We have gathered the most useful tips that will help you trade gold.

• Trading hours. You should always check trading hours for any financial instrument you trade. The hours differ depending on the market where the instrument is traded. Moreover, you should care about market liquidity.

For instance, when you trade the XAU/USD pair, there are hours when the market liquidity is higher and volatility is lower. As gold is traded against the US dollar, it’s worth considering the liquidity of the USD. The American currency provides high liquidity during the American trading session, which lasts from 12 pm to 9 pm GMT in summer and from 1 pm to 10 pm GMT in winter.

• Combine fundamental and technical analysis. It’s vital to combine fundamental factors, technical indicators, and patterns to predict the price direction of the financial instrument.
• Risk-on and risk-off sentiment. You should always be aware of the overall market sentiment. As gold is a refuge asset, political and economic events affect its value significantly. When investors are calm, the gold rate will be stable. If the market sentiment is negative, the gold price is anticipated to increase.
• Keep an eye on the US dollar rate. When speculating on spot prices, you trade XAU against USD, so you should consider the current trend of the US dollar. USD is also a safe-haven asset. So, you may be confused when forecasting the price direction of the XAU/USD pair. Still, you should remember that USD isn’t considered a strong refuge asset anymore.
• Central banks’ gold investments. Sometimes central banks buy large amounts of gold to hedge their funds. Increased buying leads to a price rise.
• Trade in ranges. The gold price usually moves within ranges. So, it’s easier to define support and resistance levels based on recent maximums and minimums.

Final Thoughts

There are numerous ways to invest in the gold market. However, gold trading is the easiest and most attractive option, especially for those who have limited knowledge about financial markets.

Gold is traded as the XAU/USD pair, futures, and options. It’s also possible to trade gold ETFs and stocks of gold-mining companies. Factors that affect the price direction are clear and easy to understand, even for beginner traders. When trading, people are afraid of high risks of potential losses, but gold is a safe-haven asset that confirms its reliability. Therefore, the risks of losses are much lower.