I’ve been trading $XAUUSD for over a week, and I made a little under 100 u. The most direct takeaway it’s given me is that the volatility is huge. I like taking a one-sided range play with direction 2, but the position size when opening trades is also too big. At 0.02 lots per point, it’s 2 u; at 100 points I get liquidated. So in many cases, I could have avoided losing, but I can’t withstand the pressure, so I ended up locking the position. The first time I locked was on Wednesday—Wednesday afternoon around 5 p.m., the guy with dyed hair shouted the call. In two minutes it dropped forty points, and I was down 80 u unrealized immediately, then I locked right away. At the time, I was in the library looking for books. Before finding the books, I checked and I was still up 5 u—I felt like the direction was right and thought I could hold it. But once I finished finding the books two minutes later, I saw I was down 80 u. I locked immediately. It felt like I was being scammed.

The second time was last night. I went long again, around 11 p.m. Two minutes, forty points. I’d already prepared for the chance of getting liquidated, but then I watched it come back. Turned out I had taken profit too early—then I saw it was still pumping, so I chased back in, thinking I’d get another stretch of one-sided range. Instead, it trapped me. Before the close, I ran.

A week of experience tells me that gold has huge swings. Controlling position size, managing trades, and having take-profit/stop-loss rules are really important. Next week I’ll adjust my strategy: open with 0.01 lots, and keep another 0.01 lots for adding. That’s still 0.02 lots total, but the risk is lower and it’s less likely to lose money. This week, three friends of mine who trade gold with me have already stopped trading, so everyone please be careful. I hope everyone can get better and better.