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Prop Firm Gold Rules: Leverage, News, Costs
Ordane accounts operate on simulated capital. No live funds are traded and no deposits are accepted. Payouts depend on simulated performance under Rulebook v1.0; no level of performance is typical or assured.
Ordane sells one product, the Ordane Instant Account: direct access, no evaluation phase and no challenge, on simulated capital.
A prop firm gold rule is a published instrument-specific constraint on XAUUSD, GC, or MGC that can set a different leverage ratio, a dedicated news-restriction window, or a distinct cost mechanism from the account's general trading rules, so the homepage headline numbers do not price a gold trade by themselves.
Metals including gold are listed; metals leverage is not set yet, and Ordane charges no spread, no commission and no swap: the account fee is the only cost. Ordane charges no per-lot commission, no spread and no swap.
This article covers three things only: the leverage actually applied to gold, the news window that can close XAUUSD trading while every other pair stays open, and what a single gold trade costs before it is even profitable. Ordane's settled gold position closes the article.
Are Gold Rules Different From the Rest of the Account?
ESMA's product-intervention notice states that CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage (ESMA, retrieved 2026-08-10). That leverage risk is the independent frame behind any prop CFD-style ticket.
The 45-word answer: yes. At firms that publish a separate leverage line for XAU, gold trades on its own margin ratio. At firms that restrict trading around news, gold and the dollar index can carry a tighter or additional window than the rest of the symbol list. At firms billing round-turn futures, gold has its own per-contract cost line.
Table 1: What Changes for Gold at Two Named Firms
| Rule area | FTMO | Topstep |
|---|---|---|
| Leverage/margin on gold | FTMO published an adjustment to the margin requirements for its XAU pairs (XAUUSD, XAUEUR, XAUAUD) (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-08-11) | Not applicable in this form: Topstep trades futures contracts (GC, MGC), which are margined per contract by the exchange, not by an account leverage ratio |
| News restriction specific to gold | Placing, modifying and closing positions on XAUUSD and DXY is blocked from two minutes before to two minutes after selected macroeconomic releases (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-08-11) | Not stated in the sourced material for this article |
| Cost unit | Spread, since XAUUSD is a CFD; the swing account leverage figure applies to positions held past the trading day (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-08-11) | Round-turn commission per contract, charged when both sides of a trade are completed (Topstep Help Center, retrieved 2026-08-11) |
| Session or holding rule | Not stated in the sourced material for this article | Every position, gold included, must be closed by 3:10 PM CT on weekdays, with trading resuming at 5:00 PM CT (Topstep Help Center, retrieved 2026-08-11) |
Two firms, two entirely different mechanisms for the same instrument. Reading one firm's terms and assuming the other works the same way is how a trader ends up in a position the account was never built to hold.
Why Is Leverage on XAU Not the Account Leverage?
Why a margin ratio change moves your position size. Leverage sets how much margin a position consumes, not how much profit or loss it can generate; profit and loss track the notional size of the position regardless of leverage.
Declared inputs: one standard lot of XAUUSD, gold priced at $2,600 per ounce, one lot equal to 100 ounces, so notional exposure is $260,000.
| Leverage ratio | Margin consumed on a $260,000 position | Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| 1:100 | $2,600 | $260,000 / 100 = $2,600 |
| 1:50 | $5,200 | $260,000 / 50 = $5,200 |
At 1:50, the same $260,000 position consumes exactly double the margin required at 1:100. $2,600 x 2 = $5,200. A trader who sizes a gold position on the account's headline number rather than the instrument's own margin line can be off by a factor of two, and will discover the gap the first time a margin call arrives earlier than a spreadsheet predicted.
What Is the News Window That Closes Gold and Nothing Else?
The exact minutes and the named symbols. FTMO states that it is not permitted to place, modify or close positions on the XAUUSD and DXY symbols (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-08-11), for a window running from two minutes before to two minutes after the release of selected macroeconomic news (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-08-11). That is four minutes total per release, and the restriction names two symbols only: gold against the dollar and the dollar index itself. Every other instrument on the account's symbol list is unaffected by this particular rule.
What the firm says a violation is. FTMO states that violation of this rule may be considered a breach of the FTMO Account Agreement (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-08-11). The sourced material for this article does not state which account types, if any, FTMO exempts from the XAUUSD and DXY window; a trader relying on this article alone should treat the restriction as applying account-wide until the firm's own current terms confirm otherwise.
Table 2: Ten Gold Round Turns, Two Ways
Declared inputs: Topstep standard-contract commission component of $1.00 round turn ($0.50 per side) (Topstep Help Center, retrieved 2026-08-11); ten completed round turns; CFD comparison uses an illustrative $0.30 XAUUSD spread on 1.00 lot (100 oz) at $2,600/oz so spread dollars = 0.30 x 100 = $30 per round entry, with swap left as variable (no fixed number in the sourced material).
| Round turns | Futures commission dollars (Topstep $1.00 RT) | CFD spread dollars at $0.30/oz on 1.00 lot | Arithmetic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1.00 | $30.00 | 1 x 1.00; 0.30 x 100 |
| 5 | $5.00 | $150.00 | 5 x 1.00; 5 x 30 |
| 10 | $10.00 | $300.00 | 10 x 1.00; 10 x 30 |
Ten standard-contract round turns cost $10.00 in the Topstep commission component alone. The same ten entries on a 1.00-lot CFD at a $0.30 spread cost $300 before swap. CFD swap is not priced here because no fixed figure exists in the sourced material; futures commission is the printed, static line.
Gold Overnight, Over the Weekend, and Into the Gap
Topstep (prop firm) requires every open position, gold included, to be closed by 3:10 PM CT on weekdays, with trading resuming at 5:00 PM CT (Topstep Help Center, retrieved 2026-08-11). That is a session-close rule, not a weekend-specific rule, and it applies daily. The sourced material for this article does not state a separate Topstep or FTMO rule for holding gold specifically across a weekend gap; a trader relying on this article alone should confirm the current weekend-holding policy directly with the firm before assuming either outcome.
What is settled, and worth stating plainly because most prop-firm content blurs it: a session-close requirement and a weekend-holding restriction are not the same rule. A firm that forces every position flat by a fixed time each weekday is managing overnight risk on a daily cycle. A firm silent on weekend holding specifically has not stated a position either way, and "not stated" is not the same as "allowed."
What Does Ordane's Rulebook Settle About Metals, and What Does It Not?
Metals are in the instrument list. Ordane lists four asset classes: FX pairs (majors and minors), metals, indices and crypto, with no exotics (Ordane Rulebook v1.0, retrieved 2026-08-11). Gold, as a metal, is within that list. Ordane charges no spread and no commission, and no swap either: the account fee is the only cost (Ordane Rulebook v1.0, retrieved 2026-08-11). On news specifically, Ordane's rulebook restricts one thing around news trading: clause R-6(d) prohibits straddling news releases with paired opposing orders, and because R-6 is a closed list, no other clause restricts trading during news or high-impact events (Ordane Rulebook v1.0, clause R-6(d), retrieved 2026-08-11). There is no gold-specific news window at Ordane comparable to FTMO's XAUUSD and DXY restriction, because Ordane has not published one. On holding, overnight and weekend holding is allowed at Ordane under ordinary risk; gap abuse specifically is prohibited under clause R-6(f) and Appendix A entry A-6 (Ordane Rulebook v1.0, clause R-6(f), retrieved 2026-08-11).
An independent US regulator frames leveraged speculation the same way: like all futures products, speculating in these markets should be considered a high-risk transaction (CFTC, retrieved 2026-08-10).
For related published reading, see trading costs against drawdown.
Appendix A of Rulebook v1.0 is published (changelog entry dated 2026-08-01) and defines each R-6 practice with examples. A-2 states that R-6(b) does not ban all automation, only bulk or high-frequency exploitation: a single expert advisor or script placing discretionary or rules-based trades at human-scale frequency, with a stop-loss on every position under R-3, is the example that does NOT close the account. (Ordane Rulebook)
Is XAUUSD the same as gold futures?
No. XAUUSD is a CFD, a contract for difference priced against the spot gold market, typically costed through spread and swap. GC and MGC are exchange-listed futures contracts, costed through a round-turn fee charged when both sides of the trade are completed (Topstep Help Center, retrieved 2026-08-11), built from components including commission (Topstep Help Center, retrieved 2026-08-11). They track the same underlying price broadly, but the instrument, the venue and the cost mechanism are different, and a rule written for one does not automatically apply to the other.
Does a gold news window apply during an evaluation?
Where a firm operates one, the sourced material for this article does not distinguish evaluation-stage restrictions from post-pass restrictions on the FTMO XAUUSD and DXY window specifically (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-08-11). A trader should not assume an evaluation account is exempt from a news restriction that applies to the instrument itself, and should verify the current account-stage scope directly with the firm rather than assume either answer.
Why is my gold spread wider at the open?
This article's research does not contain a sourced explanation of any single firm's intraday spread behavior on gold. In general, spread on any CFD instrument, gold included, tends to widen when liquidity thins, which commonly happens around session opens and closes and around scheduled news releases; a trader wanting the specific behavior on their own account should check that firm's own published trading conditions rather than assume a general market pattern applies identically everywhere.
Can I trade gold on an Ordane Instant Account?
Yes. Metals, including gold, are one of the four asset classes Ordane lists, alongside FX pairs, indices and crypto (Ordane Rulebook v1.0, retrieved 2026-08-11). The leverage ratio applied to that position has not been set yet, so a trader cannot compute the exact margin a gold position will consume until Ordane publishes that figure.
Does Ordane restrict gold trading around news releases?
No instrument-specific restriction exists. Ordane's only news-related rule is clause R-6(d), which prohibits straddling news releases with paired opposing orders across the entire symbol list, not gold specifically (Ordane Rulebook v1.0, clause R-6(d), retrieved 2026-08-11). Because R-6 is a closed list, no other clause restricts trading gold or any other instrument during news or high-impact events.
Sources
- Trading Update | 2 Feb 2026 | FTMO.com ftmo.com Retrieved 2026-08-11.
- Updated Trading Conditions for the Dollar Index (DXY) and XAUUSD | FTMO.com ftmo.com Retrieved 2026-08-11.
- Permitted products and trading hours | Topstep Help Center help.topstep.com Retrieved 2026-08-11.
- TopstepX™ — Commissions and Fees | Topstep Help Center help.topstep.com Retrieved 2026-08-11.
- Ordane Rulebook v1.0 ordanemarkets.com Retrieved 2026-08-27.
- Ordane Rulebook v1.0 ordanemarkets.com Retrieved 2026-08-11.
- Notice of product intervention decisions on CFDs and binary options | ESMA esma.europa.eu Retrieved 2026-08-10.
- Customer Advisory: Understand the Risks of Virtual Currency Trading | CFTC cftc.gov Retrieved 2026-08-10.