Your gold trade can be right. Spread can still kill it

I was long XAU/USD from a clean support level.

Fundamentals? Check. Technicals? Clean. Entry? Decent.

Then a news tick came. Gold dropped $12 in under a minute — hit my stop — and reversed $20 higher.

I replayed the trade. My analysis was fine. My stop was logical.

But I forgot one thing: spread widens during volatility.

My stop was placed based on mid-price. But my broker filled me several pips lower because the spread exploded. That extra distance took me out.

Now I do two things differently:

1️⃣ Add a spread buffer to every stop on gold during news.

2️⃣ Only trade gold on platforms with tight & stable spreads (learned this the hard way).

Anyone else had a good setup ruined by spread widening? Or is it just me?#XAU/USD##trading#trad#TradeNotes#