How to trade silver (XAGUSD): contract size, costs and risks

1. What you are trading

XAGUSD is the price of one troy ounce of silver in US dollars. On most retail platforms it is a CFD: you take a position on the price and own no metal. The first step is the same as for gold, so read what XAUUSD is and swap the metal. For how the two sit against each other, see the gold-silver ratio.

2. How big one lot is

Brokers set their own contract size. A common one is 5,000 troy ounces for one lot, so a one-dollar move in silver is a large sum per lot. Others use a smaller contract. Do not assume it matches gold: open the contract specification in MetaTrader 5 and read the contract size, the minimum lot and the tick value. Gold's lot size guide shows the arithmetic, and it works the same with silver's numbers.

3. The costs

• Spread: silver is a smaller market, so the spread is usually a bigger part of the price than on gold. See spread explained and check yours at the time you trade.
• Swap: holding past the daily rollover costs or earns a swap that differs from gold's. Read it in the specification, as in gold swap explained.
• Slippage: fast moves around news can fill your stop away from where you set it.

4. Size a trade from the stop

Decide where the idea is proven wrong, then work the lot size back from the amount you accept to lose. Silver's swings are wide for its price, so the stop is often wide too, and a wide stop means a small lot. How much to risk per trade and how to set a stop loss cover the method. Both are written for gold and apply to any market.

5. What moves silver

Silver reacts to much of what moves gold: interest rates, the dollar and inflation. On top of that it follows industrial demand, which is why it can fall while gold holds. Check the economic calendar before you hold a trade through news.

6. How to practise

Open a demo account, trade silver at small size, and write down every trade in a journal. If you want a rule, write it down and backtest it with costs. We have not tested any silver rule, and no BaroqTech strategy has passed our judge yet, so this page explains the instrument and promises nothing. Our silver numbers page shows how far silver usually moves.

The Monthly Pass and the Lifetime Pass are software licences for your own MetaTrader account. They score every robot and strategy you run the same way, with costs inside every number. See the plans.

FAQ

An educational tool. It is not investment advice. Trading leveraged products such as gold CFDs carries a high risk of losing money, and you can lose all of it.

BaroqTech makes software. It is not investment advice and it does not manage money. Trading leveraged products such as silver CFDs carries a high risk of losing money, and you can lose all of it. Results from a test or from a demo account do not predict results on a real account.