Live gold price (XAU/USD)

What the spot number is and how it is set

The spot price is the price at which gold could be bought or sold for immediate delivery, quoted in US dollars per ounce and shown here with a reference level around 4275.0. It is set by the continuous matching of buyers and sellers across the global over-the-counter market, dominated by London and New York, and it changes every time the balance of orders shifts.

Because gold trades around the clock on weekdays, the number you see is the latest trade from the interbank market passed through to your platform. It is not a fixed official price; it is a moving quote, and the figure on your screen can be a few seconds behind the market during fast conditions.

Why the broker's price differs: the spread

The price you trade at differs from the mid-market spot number because of the spread, which is the gap between the bid and the ask. The broker quotes an ask slightly above the market and a bid slightly below it, and that gap is how the cost of the trade is built in. You buy at the ask and sell at the bid, so a new position starts slightly behind the mid price.

The size of that spread is not fixed. It depends on the account type, the broker's liquidity arrangements and, above all, the time of day: it is typically narrower when London and New York are both open and wider in the quiet hours or around major economic releases. That is why the live price here is a reference, not a promise of the exact fill you will get.

How to read the change and refresh

The change figure shows how far the current price has moved from a previous reference, usually the prior session's close, and the refresh shows how recently the quote was updated. A large change with a recent refresh tells you the market is active; a stale refresh tells you the feed is quiet and the quoted price may not be tradeable at that level.

Read the change as context, not as a signal. Gold can move sharply in minutes around US data releases, and a big percentage change on the day often reflects a single event rather than a trend. Refresh before you calculate, and treat any price older than a few minutes as indicative only.

How this price feeds the calculators

The live price is the input that makes the calculators specific. The position-size tool uses your stop distance in pips, and a pip on XAU/USD is 0.01, so the current price determines how many pips sit between your entry and your stop. The margin tool uses the price to value the position before applying the leverage cap, and the profit and loss tool uses both entry and exit prices to produce a money figure.

That link matters because gold's price level changes the money at stake. At a price near 4275.0, a 1.00 move is 100 pips, and one standard lot is 100 ounces, so the arithmetic is direct but the amounts are large. Feeding the current price into the tools keeps your lot size and margin estimate aligned with the market you are actually facing.

Where the number on this page comes from and what its latency means

The number on this page is a spot reference for XAU/USD, typically the mid-price of the global wholesale market near the time of the last refresh. Latency means the reference you see may be a few seconds behind the live market, so treat it as an indicative anchor rather than a tradeable quote. In Kenya, that delay matters most when gold is moving fast around the London or New York opens, because the price can shift by several dollars before your screen updates.

The reference is compiled from institutional pricing feeds and refreshed on a fixed interval, not tick by tick. A short latency is normal and does not mean the price is wrong; it means it is a snapshot. The practical effect is that your broker's tradeable quote, which updates continuously, may already be above or below the reference by the time you look. Use the reference to understand the market level, not to decide the exact fill you will get.

Latency becomes a real cost when you place a market order during a burst of volatility. If the reference is stale by even a few seconds, the broker's quote can be materially different, and your fill reflects the live market, not the page. The defence is simple: check the broker's own quote before you click, size the position so a small adverse move does not change your plan, and remember that the reference is a guide, not a promise.

Why a broker's quote differs from a reference price

A broker's quote differs from a reference price because it is a tradeable price built from the broker's own liquidity and includes the cost of doing business. The reference is a mid-market snapshot; the broker's bid and ask sit either side of it, and the gap between them is how the broker is compensated for executing your order. The difference is structural, not an error, and it widens or narrows with market conditions and the size you trade.

The broker also manages risk. When you buy gold, the broker may hedge the position in the underlying market, and the price it shows you reflects the cost of that hedge plus its markup. That is why the broker's quote can sit a few cents away from a public reference even in quiet markets. The exact difference depends on the broker's liquidity arrangements, the time of day, and the instrument, so no single figure applies to every order.

For a Kenyan trader funding with M-Pesa, the practical point is that the reference on this page is not the price you will pay. The broker's quote is the one your order fills against, and it already contains the spread. Compare the broker's ask with the reference to see the gap in context, but do not expect them to match to the cent. The gap is the cost of access, and it is disclosed in the quote itself.

Bid, ask and the gap between them

The bid is the price at which you can sell, and the ask is the price at which you can buy; the gap between them is the spread. For gold quoted in dollars per ounce, a pip is 0.01, so a spread of a few cents is a few pips. The ask is always higher than the bid, which means a new position starts slightly underwater by the size of the spread. That is normal and is the first cost every trade carries.

The size of the gap depends on liquidity, volatility and the broker's model. Around major news or the daily close, the gap can widen as liquidity thins, and it can narrow when trading is deep and orderly. Because the spread is not fixed, the cost of entering and exiting a position changes through the day. On a 0.10-lot gold position, one pip is $1.00, so a one-cent spread costs about $1.00 to cross, and that cost is separate from any commission the broker may charge.

Reading the bid and ask together tells you the true cost of a round trip. If you buy at the ask and immediately sell at the bid, you lose the spread. That is why short-term trading in gold demands an awareness of the gap, especially when it widens. The reference price on this page sits between the two, so use it to judge direction, but use the broker's bid and ask to judge what the trade actually costs.

What a stale quote looks like and what to do about it

A stale quote looks like a price that has stopped moving while the market around it has not. On a live page, that can appear as a timestamp that is older than expected, a change figure that stays frozen through a volatile period, or a bid-ask gap that looks unusually wide for the time of day. In fast markets, a stale reference can lag the broker's quote by enough to mislead you about the true level.

The cause is usually a delayed feed, a refresh that has not completed, or a period of low liquidity when the underlying market itself is quiet. It is not necessarily a fault, but it is a warning. If you are about to trade, cross-check the broker's own platform, which streams continuously, and compare the two. If they disagree by more than the normal gap, assume the reference is the stale one and rely on the broker's quote for execution.

The right response is to pause rather than guess. Refresh the page, check the timestamp, and if the figure still looks out of step with the broker's platform, wait for the next update or trade from the broker's quote directly. Never size a position on a number you suspect is stale, because the fill you get will be at the live market, and the difference can be larger than your intended risk.

How often this figure refreshes and what a stale one looks like

This figure refreshes on a fixed interval rather than on every tick, so it is a periodic snapshot of the spot reference. The interval is short enough to be useful for context but long enough that the number can lag a fast market. A stale figure is one that has not updated when expected, shows a timestamp older than the refresh cycle, or fails to reflect a move that is visible on the broker's platform.

Staleness is relative to volatility. In a quiet Asian session, a reference that is a minute old may still be close to the market; during a US data release, a few seconds can be a meaningful gap. The page does not guarantee tick-by-tick accuracy, and it is not intended to. Its job is to give you a reliable anchor for the level of XAU/USD, not to be the execution price for your order.

If you notice the figure has not changed while the broker's quote has moved, treat it as stale and act accordingly. Refresh, compare, and if necessary use the broker's platform as your primary price source. The reference is a tool for understanding where gold is trading, and like any snapshot, it is only as good as its timestamp. Check the time before you trust the number.

The difference between a spot reference and the broker's tradeable quote

A spot reference is an indicative mid-market level, while the broker's tradeable quote is the price at which your order can actually execute. The reference excludes the spread and any markup; the tradeable quote includes them. That is why the two never match exactly, and why the broker's ask is the number that matters when you buy. The reference tells you the market level; the quote tells you the cost of entry.

The tradeable quote also carries the broker's execution terms, including the entity that serves Kenya. FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK), CySEC and FSCA, not by the CMA of Kenya, so the quote you see comes from the FxPro entity that serves this country and reflects its liquidity and risk management. The reference on this page is independent of that entity and is not a binding price for any order.

For practical purposes, use the reference to judge direction and the tradeable quote to judge cost. At the applicable leverage cap for the entity serving Kenya, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin, and that margin is calculated from the tradeable quote, not the reference. The distinction matters because your risk and your fill are both set by the broker's price, while the reference is only a guide.