Gold execution and research records
Gold Trading Journal
Start with what you traded: a broker XAU/USD product, a specific futures contract, a fund share or physical metal. They can reference gold while using different units, cash flows and obligations.
Pineify Journal organizes trade records and notes. It does not infer gold contract specifications, manage rollovers or provide an automatic precious-metals research dashboard.
Identify the instrument before calculating P&L
| Instrument | Quantity convention | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|---|
| Broker XAU/USD product | Use the broker’s product and lot specification; a symbol alone does not define ounces per lot. | Actual fills, commissions and financing debits or credits. Do not assume a universal pip value. |
| COMEX Gold futures (GC) | 100 troy ounces per contract; $100 per $1/oz move; $10 per $0.10/oz tick. | Exact contract month, quantity, fills and fees; separately track expiry, margin and any roll. |
| Micro Gold futures (MGC) | 10 troy ounces per contract; $10 per $1/oz move; $1 per $0.10/oz tick. | The smaller contract has a different money value per tick. Do not copy GC values into an MGC record. |
| Gold ETP or mining share | Share quantity and the specific security’s quote currency. | Check the prospectus or company disclosures. A fund, trust and mining company are not interchangeable gold exposures. |
| Physical holding | Weight, purity, purchase documentation and ownership arrangement. | Purchase/sale premiums, custody, storage and other actual charges. A securities trade row is not a custody ledger. |
CME publishes the GC contract size and MGC size and tick convention. These are contract specifications, not broker margin quotes. Record the exact expiry and broker requirements instead of assuming a universal rollover calendar.
A falling price is a gain for this short futures trade
Fictional comparison: sell one contract at $2,365 per troy ounce and buy back the same expiry at $2,340. The price falls $25. Compare one GC with one MGC, using invented total costs of $6 and $2 respectively. These are examples, not historical fills, fee schedules or customer results.
| Contract | Gross calculation | Costs | Net result |
|---|---|---|---|
| GC | ($2,365 − $2,340) × 100 × 1 = $2,500 | $6 | +$2,494 |
| MGC | ($2,365 − $2,340) × 10 × 1 = $250 | $2 | +$248 |
The same move is 250 ticks of $0.10/oz: 250 × $10 = $2,500 for GC, or 250 × $1 = $250 for MGC, before costs. The sign depends on direction. Actual fills already include execution-price effects; do not subtract the same spread or slippage twice.
The account-based Journal does not apply these futures multipliers automatically. Its generic price-change-times-quantity calculation would give $25 for one contract, which is not either futures result. Keep the true contract count. For a separate manual USD calculation, the free P&L calendar accepts an explicit point value; it has no autosave or automatic transfer to Journal.
A ratio change is not a second source of P&L
Use comparable gold and silver prices in the same currency per troy ounce, with matching observation times. The gold-silver ratio is gold price divided by silver price. It describes relative prices, not the cash result of a gold-only trade.
Fictional counterexample: gold falls from $2,550 to $2,400 while silver stays at $30. The ratio falls from 85 to 80, yet a long gold holding loses $150 per ounce before costs, about 5.88%. Ratio compression did not add a gain. A two-leg trade needs each leg’s direction, quantity, fills and costs calculated separately.
Keep macro observations testable
For an economic release or central-bank decision, retain the original source, release time, timezone and what was known at entry. If you use a yield, currency index or volatility reading, name the series and timestamp. A later revised value should not silently replace the original observation.
Define an event window before comparing trades. Report sample size, payoff and costs; a tag does not establish that the event caused the result. Gold does not have a guaranteed inverse relationship with the dollar or a guaranteed positive response to a crisis. Treat a favorable historical group as a research hypothesis.
Record rolls and carrying costs as separate events
A futures roll closes one contract and opens another. Preserve both fills and fees; the difference between contract prices is not, by itself, realized profit or a separate fee. Do not use a continuous-chart adjustment as a broker cash flow. For a broker metal product or physical holding, retain actual financing, custody or storage charges and credits under the relevant terms.
Use the Journal for records it can represent
Record the instrument, fills, quantity, partial closes and supported fees. Use notes, tags, setups and sessions to preserve decisions. XAU/USD is not a recognized direct fiat FX pair in the current Journal, so its name does not activate gold lot, pip or currency-conversion logic.
There is no automatic gold-silver ratio feed, macro-correlation dashboard, futures rollover manager or physical custody ledger here. Reconcile money values using the exact product and account currency. Check current plan access in the app; this guide does not promise a free account or a fixed lifetime price.
Gold journal questions
What should a gold trading journal record?
Identify the actual product, broker or exchange, quote currency, contract month where relevant, units, direction, fills, costs and timestamps. Keep macro observations and the reason for the trade separate from the calculation of realized P&L.
Does Pineify automatically import gold executions from TradingView?
No automatic TradingView execution import is established in the current Journal. Import History is marked Coming Soon. Maintain records manually or through authorized Journal tools and reconcile them against the broker statement.
Does XAU/USD use the same automatic FX calculation as EUR/USD?
No. XAU is not a fiat currency in the Journal’s direct-FX classification. Do not assume XAU/USD supplies gold lot sizes, pip values or automatic currency conversion. Reconcile the actual product’s units and money values separately.
Does the Journal apply GC or MGC multipliers?
The current account-based Journal does not automatically apply futures contract multipliers. A price-change-times-contract-count calculation is not futures currency P&L. Keep true contract counts and reconcile monetary results separately; do not disguise the multiplier by changing the recorded contract count.
Does Pineify manage gold futures rollovers or delivery?
No. Record the close of the old contract and the opening of the replacement contract separately. Check the exchange and broker for the exact expiry, delivery and position requirements. A continuous-chart adjustment is not a realized cash flow.
Does a falling gold-silver ratio mean my gold trade made money?
No. The ratio can fall while gold falls, while silver rises, or while both prices change. A gold-only trade earns or loses from its own fills, quantity and costs. The ratio change is not an additional profit to add.
Are macro events and gold-silver ratios captured automatically?
The current Journal has notes, tags, setups and sessions, but no dedicated automatic precious-metals ratio or macro-correlation dashboard. Record the source, timestamp, units and information available at entry when adding research context.
What win rate proves that a gold strategy works?
No fixed win rate or profit-factor threshold proves future profitability. State the product, sample, payoff sizes, costs and selection method. A favorable event-tagged group is a hypothesis to evaluate on later observations.
Reconcile the product before reviewing the pattern
Start with one trade whose units, money value and costs you can verify against the broker record. Keep research notes distinct from execution evidence.
Published by Pineify. Prices, fills and fees in the examples are fictional. Contract specifications link to CME Group. Educational record-keeping only, not investment or tax advice; no result or trading advantage is guaranteed.