Spread widening around news: when one lot of gold costs eight times as much

You place a gold order at 4,412 and it fills at 4,412.80. Before anything has happened, the account is $80
down. It is not the broker cheating — it is spread widening, and it happens reliably around
every significant economic release. A 2026 survey of
XAU/USD costs found gold spreads ranging from 6
cents to over 50 cents depending on market conditions — more than eightfold, on the same
instrument.

1. What spread widening is and why it happens

The spread is the distance between the bid and the ask. It is not fixed; it reflects how much risk
liquidity providers are willing to take.

Immediately before a major release — non-farm
payrolls, the consumer price index, a rate decision — market makers do not know which way price will jump.
They respond by widening the gap between bid and ask to protect themselves. The result: the spread you pay
spikes for a few minutes.

2. Three moments when spreads always widen

• Around a data release. Widening usually starts 1–2 minutes beforehand and takes 5–15 minutes
  to return to normal.
• At the Monday open. Liquidity is thin as the market reopens after the weekend, with
  accumulated gaps on top.
• At the session changeover. When New York closes and Asia has not yet found its rhythm, the
  number of resting orders falls sharply.

3. What entering at the wrong moment really costs

Take gold, where one lot is 100 ounces so every cent of spread is $1:

• Entering during the London session, at an average spread of about 6 cents → roughly
  $6/lot.
• Entering at the minute of the release, where the spread can exceed 50 cents → more than
  $50/lot.

A $44 difference per lot, purely from when the button was pressed. For someone entering 5 lots that is $220
evaporated before the market has moved in any direction.

4. Slippage: the sibling of spread widening

Spread widening makes the entry more expensive. Slippage makes the exit worse. When price
moves too fast, your stop loss does not fill at the level you set but at a worse one.

This is why a tight stop around news is usually
counterproductive: the position is swept by a momentary spread blowout, and then price goes exactly the way you
predicted — with you out of the market.

5. Four ways to limit the damage

• Check the economic calendar before entering. Simply
  knowing whether there is high-impact news today avoids most of the risk.
• Wait 15 minutes after the release. The market’s real direction usually only emerges once the
  initial noise has passed, and by then the spread has normalised.
• Use pending orders rather than market orders during volatile periods, so you control the
  entry price.
• Widen the stop and reduce size proportionally. The money at risk stays the same, and the
  trade gets room to breathe.

6. The part of the cost you can get back

Spread widening is not something you control — the market decides it. But the commission generated on each lot
is: that is what the broker pays its introducing partner, and a trading rebate returns that part to the
trader.

For anyone trading around news — the group most exposed to spread widening — that rebate offsets exactly the
cost they cannot avoid.

Sources

• ForexSpreadCompare — XAU/USD Spread Comparison: Gold Trading Costs Ranked (2026)
• FXNX — Gold Spreads: Calculate Your True XAUUSD Trading Cost
• FxScouts — Best Gold Trading Brokers (8/2026)

This article is for information only and is not investment advice. Conditions and fee levels are published by the brokers and can change at any time — check with the broker you actually use. Leveraged forex and CFD trading carries a high level of risk and can cost you your entire deposit.