ARTICLE · 27 DECEMBER 2024

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Is an XAU/USD contract classed as FX or Commodity for reporting?

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Codes are used when a gold or silver spot trade has been entered into on an FX market.

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How are Gold and other precious metals traded?

Precious metals can be traded in 3 main ways:

Buying physical gold bars
Entering into futures or other derivatives on a commodities exchange
Trading interbank derived spot metals as a currency pair (XAU/USD etc.)

What is XAU/USD?

The ISO 4217 standard designates currency codes such as XAU (the currency code for gold), XAG (the currency code for silver), XAG, XTS, XBB, XBC, XPT and XPD etc. These currency codes are used when a gold or silver spot trade has been entered into on an FX market alongside the relevant currency it is being traded against.

The code XAU/USD for example, consists of both the code for gold and the USD currency. XAU can also be traded on the FX marketplace similarly to other currencies such as Euro or Australian dollars (referred to as XAU/EUR and XAU/AUD, respectively).

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