Can You Trade Gold on Weekends? Now You Can

For decades, gold trading has followed a familiar trading routine. Markets opened late on Sunday and closed on Friday evening. Under this structure, traders are unable to react to breaking news over the weekend. If a geopolitical event, an inflation shock, or a central bank announcement occurred on Saturday, traders had to wait until markets reopened.

That limitation led to an important question in the trading community:

Can you trade gold on weekends?

Until recently, the answer was no. But now, this has changed. Two of the world's leading trading platforms, eToro and IG, now offer solutions that allow you to trade gold outside of standard market hours. 

In this article, we explain how weekend gold trading works on both platforms, what makes them different, and what traders should consider before trading outside traditional hours.

How Gold Trading Traditionally Works

To understand why weekend trading is revolutionary, it is important to understand the traditional market structure. When you trade gold with a forex/CFD broker, you are usually not buying physical gold. Instead, you are trading XAUUSD, which represents the price of one ounce of gold in US dollars. It works just like a currency pair. However, in this case, gold replaces one of the currencies.

Your broker gets gold prices from large liquidity providers, banks, and futures markets like COMEX. The broker then streams those prices to your trading platform. When you buy or sell gold, your order is matched internally or passed to those liquidity providers. Typically, Forex and CFD brokers close gold trading on weekends because the main global gold markets are closed.

Banks, exchanges, and institutional liquidity providers stop quoting prices from Friday evening until Sunday night. Since your broker depends on those institutions for pricing and order execution, they cannot offer normal gold trading during that time. Without real market liquidity, there is no reliable price to trade.

Gold Weekend Trading

The emergence of weekend trading for gold, particularly on platforms like eToro and IG, is a direct response to tackle this problem. These brokers have created internal, synthetic markets that allow traders to buy and sell gold CFDs even when the underlying exchanges are closed.

They bridge this gap by offering Gold Contracts for Difference (CFDs) that are tradable during the weekend. It is crucial to understand that these are not the same as buying physical gold or a standard futures contract. A CFD is a derivative product that allows you to speculate on the price movement of an asset without owning the underlying commodity. But how does weekend trading work on these two brokers? Let’s take a look.

Which Brokers Offer Gold Trading on Weekends?

Weekend Gold Trading on eToro

eToro has introduced a major innovation to its product offering. Gold is now tradable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is a recent development and represents a significant shift from traditional commodity trading hours. Instead of closing gold trading late on Friday, eToro keeps the market open continuously. Traders can open, close, or modify positions at any time, including Saturdays and Sundays.

Because eToro operates as a broker and market maker, it can provide continuous pricing even when traditional exchanges are closed. eToro achieves this by offering a leveraged contract that is very similar to perpetual futures, which does not have an expiry date. For traders interested in trading gold over the weekend, the instrument is available under the ticker GOLD.24-7.

Typically, eToro charges spreads on gold CFDs starting from 0.025%. However, during weekends, spreads may be wider than during peak weekday hours. Traders still have the ability to enter or exit positions instead of waiting for markets to reopen. All trading is conducted on eToro’s proprietary platform, which features an intuitive interface and includes a built-in copy trading functionality.

Additionally, eToro offers a wide variety of investment options, enabling traders to diversify their portfolios effectively. Investors can trade CFDs across forex pairs, commodities, indices, stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies. Beyond CFDs, eToro also allows direct trading of real stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies. However, note that only gold and cryptocurrencies are available for weekend trading.

Finally, eToro is a well-regulated broker, holding licenses from several organisations. These include the FCA in the UK, the CySEC in Cyprus, the ASIC in Australia, and the FSRA in Abu Dhabi, among others. The company is also listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, which further strengthens its credibility.

52% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Weekend Gold Trading on IG

IG Group takes a slightly different approach to weekend trading. Rather than offering full 24/7 gold access, IG provides dedicated market instruments that are tradable only on weekends, including gold. Weekend gold is offered as a distinct CFD instrument. It is separate from the standard weekday gold market. The ticker for this weekend's instrument will have the name Weekend preceding it to distinguish it from its weekday counterpart. Traders will find it under the symbol Weekend Gold.

Prices and spreads are subject to change. Check your platform for the most up to date data.

The weekend trading hours for gold are from 4 pm Saturday to 6.40 am Monday (UTC+8). Typically, IG charges spreads that start from as low as 0.3 pips for gold. While the exact weekend spreads are not specified, traders should expect them to be wider during the weekend due to lower liquidity.

In addition to gold, IG offers CFDs on shares, forex, indices, commodities, and ETFs. However, not all these instruments are available for weekend trading. Weekend trading is only reserved for GBP/USD, EUR/USD, USD/JPY, global indices, cryptocurrencies, and gold. The trading platforms available to traders include MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, L2 Dealer, TradingView, and ProRealTime.

Regulation and trust are important considerations when trading outside traditional hours. IG is a highly regulated broker with licenses from the FCA in the UK, the CySEC in Cyprus, the ASIC in Australia, and the BaFin in Germany, among others.

70-74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Advantages of Gold Weekend Trading

Weekend gold trading offers several important advantages for active traders:

• Ability to React to Breaking News - Financial markets do not stop reacting just because exchanges are closed. Political tensions, military conflicts, policy statements, or macroeconomic developments can happen at any time. Weekend gold trading allows traders to respond to these events immediately instead of waiting for the market to open on Monday.
• Greater Flexibility for Traders - Some traders may be busy during weekday market hours. Weekend trading provides an alternative window for individuals who work full-time jobs or have other commitments during the week. This flexibility makes gold trading more accessible.
• Strategic Positioning Before the Week Begins - Weekend sessions allow traders to establish positions ahead of anticipated Monday momentum. If traders expect strong movement at the start of the week, they can prepare in advance rather than reacting after the move has already started.
• Strategic Hedging - If you hold a large gold position over the weekend and news breaks that could hurt your trade, you don’t have to sit idly by. Using weekend-specific instruments (like IG’s weekend gold), you can open a counter-position to hedge your risk.

Risks to Consider Before Trading Gold on Weekends

Despite the advantages, weekend gold trading also carries important risks:

• Wider Spreads - Weekend gold markets typically have higher spreads than weekday sessions. Because pricing is internally generated and liquidity is lower, brokers often widen spreads to compensate for increased risk.
• Lower Liquidity - Even though trading is available, the overall market depth is usually thinner. Lower liquidity can lead to sharper price swings and potentially less efficient order execution.
• Synthetic Pricing Differences - Weekend gold trading is based on broker-generated pricing rather than live institutional exchange quotes. When the main global markets reopen, there may be price adjustments that differ from weekend levels. Traders should be prepared for possible differences.

Closing Remarks

The answer to whether you can trade gold on weekends is now a clear yes. eToro offers 24/7 gold trading, while IG provides dedicated weekend gold instrument during specific hours. By breaking the limitations of traditional market hours, these brokers give traders the ability to respond to breaking news, hedge existing positions, and manage risk more effectively.

However, this increased flexibility comes with some trade-offs. Traders must consider the wider spreads, thinner liquidity, and potential price differences when global markets reopen. For those who do choose to venture into the weekend markets, the key is preparation, understanding, and disciplined risk management.