Trading gold, oil and indices on a challenge

All six follow the futures hours of their exchanges, in New York time:

• Open from Sunday 18:00 to Friday 17:00.
• A daily break from 17:00 to 18:00, Monday to Thursday.
• Exchange holidays and early closes, such as Thanksgiving. On 26 November 2026, trading stops at 14:30 and reopens at 18:00. On 27 November it closes at 14:45. On 24 December it closes at 13:45, and 25 December is closed.

In UTC, the daily break is 22:00 to 23:00 in the northern winter and 21:00 to 22:00 in summer, because New York changes its clocks. The terminal shows each market's state and when it next opens or closes, so you don't need to work this out yourself. See Market hours for every market.

Margin is the trade's value divided by the leverage. Say gold is at $4,000: 1 lot is worth $400,000 and needs about $13,333 of margin. Say NAS100 is at 25,000: 1 lot is worth $25,000 and needs $1,000.

Gold and silver lots are large. On a small account, most trades in gold will be a few hundredths of a lot. Position sizing works through a gold example.

Each trade pays a spread, and on a Raw account a commission. Every position held through 00:00 UTC pays an overnight fee. All are a percentage of the trade's value.

The Raw commission of 0.0035% is $3.50 for each $100,000 traded. On the indices, Standard and Raw cost the same today.

Some examples, with made-up prices:

• 1 lot of gold at $4,000 ($400,000): on Standard the extra spread costs $40 for the round trip. On Raw the commission is $14 each side, $28 in all. Each night held costs $60.
• 1 lot of WTI at $70 ($7,000): $2.10 on Standard, or $0.49 in commission on Raw. Each night costs $1.05.
• 1 lot of NAS100 at 25,000 ($25,000): $2.50 on either account type. Each night costs $3.75.

On top of these, both account types pay the real market's own spread. Spreads, commissions and overnight fees compares the two account types in more detail.

Because these markets close every day and over the weekend, the price can open somewhere other than where it closed. That jump is a gap.

While a market is closed on Runtiler:

• Open positions are valued at the last price.
• You can cancel a pending order, but you can't place, change or close orders, or move a stop loss or take profit, until it reopens.
• Pending orders don't fill.

When it reopens, a stop loss or stop order that the price jumped past fills at the first price, which can be worse than your stop. A limit order the price jumped past fills at the first price too, which is better than your limit. If the first price puts your equity at or past the max loss, the account ends.

The daily break is short and gaps there are usually small. The weekend is the one to think about: news from Friday evening to Sunday evening is priced in all at once. If you hold over the weekend, size the trade so that a gap past your stop wouldn't take you to your max loss. Holding over the weekend is allowed.

Overnight fees count every 00:00 UTC, whether the market is open or not. A Friday-to-Monday hold crosses three midnights and pays three nights.

These are broad drivers, not predictions. Each can be outweighed by the others on any given day.

Gold and silver

• Interest rates and the dollar. Gold pays no interest, so it often weakens when real interest rates rise and strengthens when they fall. It is priced in dollars, so a stronger dollar tends to weigh on it.
• Fear and uncertainty. Gold is a traditional safe haven and often rises when other markets are stressed.
• Central bank buying and demand for jewellery and investment.
• Silver tends to follow gold but moves more in percent, partly because it is also an industrial metal.

Oil

• Supply decisions by large producers, especially the OPEC+ group.
• Inventories. The weekly US government report on crude stocks, usually on Wednesday at 10:30 New York time, often moves the price.
• Geopolitics in producing regions, and shipping disruptions.
• Demand, which follows the strength of the world economy.
• WTI is the US benchmark and Brent the international one. They usually move together, a few dollars apart.

Stock indices

• Company earnings, especially from the largest companies in each index. The Nasdaq 100 leans heavily on large technology companies, so it often moves more than the S&P 500.
• Interest rate expectations. Federal Reserve decisions and the inflation and jobs data that feed them can move indices sharply.
• Risk appetite in general. Indices tend to fall when investors are nervous.

Most scheduled US data is released at 08:30 New York time, and Federal Reserve rate decisions at 14:00. Trading the news is allowed on Runtiler. The real market's spread often widens around big releases, and that reaches your price too.

• Know when the market closes before you open a trade, especially on Fridays and before holidays.
• Size from the stop, and leave room for a gap if you hold through a close.
• Count the overnight fee on trades you plan to hold for days. On a full lot of gold, it adds up quickly.
• Check the calendar for the big releases in the market you trade, and decide in advance whether to be in or out.
• Pick the account type that suits the markets you trade most. On metals and oil, Raw is cheaper per trade today.