LDRSIGNALGold Risk Management: Lot Size, Stop Loss and How Much to Risk per Trade
Most traders lose money on gold not because their direction is wrong, but because their position is too big for their stop.
What a $1 move is worth
On most brokers 1 standard lot of XAUUSD is 100 ounces, so a $1 move in gold equals about $100 per lot. That makes 0.1 lot ≈ $10 and 0.01 lot ≈ $1 per $1 move. Always check your own broker's contract size.
The 1–2% rule
Decide how much of your account you accept to lose if the stop is hit – many traders use 1–2%. Then size the trade from the stop distance:
Lot size = (account × risk %) ÷ (stop distance in $ × 100)
Example: $2,000 account, 1% risk = $20. Stop is $8 away. 20 ÷ (8 × 100) = 0.025 → round down to 0.02 lot.
Tight stops are not always safer
A stop smaller than gold's normal swing gets hit by noise. LDRSIGNAL flags calls whose stop is tighter than the recent average range (ATR).
Manage the trade
- Take partial profit at TP1.
- Move the stop to entry after TP1 if the setup allows.
- Never add to a losing trade to "average down".
LDRSIGNAL shows every channel's results in dollars at a fixed 0.1 lot, so you can compare traders on the same scale.