What is the average daily range of XAUUSD in 2026?
From 2 January to 22 October 2026, the average XAUUSD day moved $120.50 from high to low, or 2.63% of price, across 209 daily bars. The median day moved $100.03, or 2.20% of price.
In 2024 the average day moved $33.02 (1.38% of price), and in 2025 $60.70 (1.73%). The figures come from IC Markets MetaTrader 5 daily (D1) bars on server time, through 22 October 2026, the last complete bar in the data.
XAUUSD daily range by year
| Year | Daily bars | Average range | Median range | Average range, % of price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 259 | $33.02 | $30.43 | 1.38% |
| 2025 | 258 | $60.70 | $51.22 | 1.73% |
| 2026, to 22 October | 209 | $120.50 | $100.03 | 2.63% |
First close of 2024: 2,058.91. Close on 22 October 2026: 4,024.32.
How has the daily range changed since 2024?
- In dollars, it has more than tripled. The average day of 2026 is 3.6 times the average day of 2024: $120.50 against $33.02.
- As a share of price, it has almost doubled. The average range rose from 1.38% of price in 2024 to 2.63% in 2026, 1.9 times as wide. The higher gold price does not explain it alone: price roughly doubled over the same period, while the range in dollars grew 3.6 times.
- 2026 has the widest yearly average in the data, which starts in 2020. From 2020 to 2023 the yearly average stayed between 1.22% and 1.77% of price.
Why is the median day smaller than the average?
In every year the median sits below the average: $30.43 against $33.02 in 2024, $51.22 against $60.70 in 2025, and $100.03 against $120.50 in 2026. A few very wide days pull an average up far more than they move a median, so at least half of all days were narrower than the average. For an ordinary day, the median is the better reference.
What does a wider daily range mean for stops and position size?
A distance fixed in dollars covers less of the day when the range widens. The median day of 2024, $30.43, is less than a third of the median day of 2026, $100.03, so a stop, a target or an alert set in dollars two years ago can now sit inside an ordinary day’s movement. At the same lot size, the dollar swing of an average 2026 day is 3.6 times that of 2024.
Distances measured as a share of price, or as a multiple of recent volatility such as the average true range (ATR), adjust with the market; fixed dollar distances do not.
How were the figures calculated?
- Data: daily (D1) bars of XAUUSD from the IC Markets price feed in MetaTrader 5 (demo server), read on 23 October 2026.
- Period: 2 January 2024 to 22 October 2026 for the table; the comparison with 2020 to 2023 uses the same data from 2 January 2020. The bar of 23 October 2026 was left out because it was not complete when the data was read.
- Trading day: one server day, from 00:00 to 24:00 server time. IC Markets server time is New York time plus 7 hours: UTC+3 during US daylight saving time and UTC+2 otherwise. Gold trades Monday to Friday, about 23 hours a day.
- Daily range: the high minus the low of the D1 bar. Range as a share of price: (high − low) ÷ the previous day’s close × 100. Dividing by the bar’s own open instead gives the same result to within 0.01 percentage point.
- Year: the calendar year of the server date.
Another broker starts its trading day at its own server time and uses its own price feed, so its daily bars, and the ranges, can differ slightly.
How can I check the figures myself?
- In MetaTrader 5, right-click in Market Watch and choose Symbols. On the Bars tab, select XAUUSD and the D1 timeframe, and click Request.
- Export the bars as a CSV file.
- In a spreadsheet, add a column with the high minus the low of every row. For the share of price, divide each range by the close of the row above and multiply by 100.
- Group the rows by calendar year and take the average and the median. Leave out the current day if its bar is still open.
Sources
- Price data: XAUUSD D1 bars from the IC Markets MetaTrader 5 price feed (demo server), 2 January 2020 to 22 October 2026; the table uses 2024 to 2026.
- Calculation: EA Kingdom market research, 25 October 2026, with the definitions above. Only yearly aggregates are published, not the broker’s raw price data.
- Exporting bars in MetaTrader 5: MetaTrader 5 Help, Market Watch.
These are historical statistics about past price movement, not a forecast and not trading advice. Trading gold with leverage involves substantial risk, and past market behavior does not guarantee future behavior.
About EA Kingdom
EA Kingdom builds Expert Advisors (automated trading programs) and free tools for gold (XAUUSD) on MetaTrader 5, sold only on the MQL5 Market. Every published backtest comes with the exact Strategy Tester settings to reproduce it with the free demo, and the maximum equity drawdown is printed next to every result. Short answers about every product: FAQ.