Questions and answers
Frequently asked questions
What traders ask about stops, gold's movement, news days and liquidation heatmaps, and what they ask about Ampeld. Each answer is short; the link under it goes to the page with the full answer and today's numbers.
Stops and stop hunting
Is stop loss hunting real?
Price does sometimes run through a crowd of resting stops and turn, but most stop-outs are explained by distance and timing. On two years of hourly gold data a stop one ATR away was hit within 24 hours about three times in four, and the levels where stops are supposed to crowd were reached no more often than a placebo level the same distance away (47.4% against 48.1%).
What is the difference between a stop hunt, a liquidity sweep and a liquidity grab?
They describe the same chart shape: price trades through an obvious high, low or round number and closes back on the other side. 'Stop hunt' implies someone did it on purpose; 'sweep' and 'grab' are the smart-money-concepts words for it, with no official line between them. None of the names says what price does next.
Why does price keep hitting my stop loss?
Usually because the stop sits inside the instrument's ordinary movement, was opened in a busy hour, or was hit on the broker's widened spread. Set the distance from the current ATR first, then size the position so that distance costs what you planned to risk.
How many pips should a stop loss be on gold?
There is no fixed number, because gold's movement changes from week to week. Measure the stop in hourly ATR: the gold stop-loss page converts the hit rates by distance into today's dollars and pips (counting $0.10 as a pip, as most retail XAUUSD quotes do).
Gold stop loss: hit rates by distance, in dollars and pips →
How do I calculate lot size on XAUUSD?
Divide the amount you are prepared to lose by the stop distance in dollars times the ounces per lot (usually 100). Risking $100 with a $10 stop on a 100 oz lot gives 0.10 lot. The calculator does it for any balance and shows margin and the stop in ATR; check your broker's contract size.
How many gold stops fit in a prop firm's daily loss limit?
Divide the daily limit by what one full stop costs at your position size. The prop firm page does that for FTMO-style challenges, and shows how often a stop of that distance was hit within 4 and 24 hours.
Gold's movement and the news
How many pips does gold move in a day?
It depends on the period: the daily range page gives the range 50%, 80% and 90% of trading days stayed under over the last 20, 60 and 250 sessions, the average and the daily ATR, in dollars and in pips, refreshed hourly from COMEX gold futures. It measures range only, never direction.
What time is the NFP, CPI or Fed decision in my time zone?
The jobs report (NFP) and CPI come out at 08:30 New York time and the Fed decision at 14:00 New York time. Each news-day page gives the next release in UTC, India, Pakistan, London and New York time, worked out for daylight saving on the release date.
How much does gold move on NFP, CPI or Fed days?
We measure gold's range in the release hour, the first 15 and 60 minutes and the whole day against the same window on ordinary weekdays, for every release since January 2025. It is volatility only: the same figure follows a good and a bad surprise.
Liquidation heatmaps
What is a liquidation heatmap?
A map of the price zones where leveraged traders' stop-losses and margin calls are estimated to concentrate. For gold, forex, indices and stocks it is always a model, because those markets publish no positions; it shows where stops are likely to sit, not where price will go.
Is there a gold liquidation heatmap on TradingView or CoinGlass?
As of October 2026 TradingView has no built-in one that we could find; the liquidation heatmaps on its charts are community scripts that estimate levels from swings, volume and assumed leverage. CoinGlass shows gold only as traded on crypto exchanges, such as Binance's XAU/USDT perpetual, not a broker's spot XAUUSD.
How is Ampeld's liquidation heatmap built?
From price and volume only: stop-loss bands from average true range and position decay, order blocks and fair value gaps from candle structure, and daily and weekly levels. There is no broker data, order book or exchange liquidation feed behind it.
Is the liquidation heatmap accurate?
We tested ours against a placebo across roughly 100,000 historical levels: price reached our modeled stop bands 47.4% of the time against 48.1% for a level the same distance away, and reversed at them no more often. The levels show where stops plausibly sit, not a direction.
About Ampeld
Is Ampeld free?
Yes, on a 24-hour delay: the terminal for all 41 markets, all timeframes, the calculators and the data pages are free with no card, and no account is needed to look. A free account adds a watchlist and a weekly email.
What does the 24-hour delay mean?
The free terminal shows its data on a rolling 24-hour delay rather than live. That is enough to learn where stops tend to sit and to check the modeled levels against what price did afterwards, but not for decisions in the current session.
What does Premium add?
Live data instead of the 24-hour delay (crypto in real time; gold, silver, oil, gas and the futures-fed indices from feeds that can run about 10-15 minutes behind), the full set of modeled overlays and email alerts when price nears a cluster on your watchlist. It costs €19 a month or €179 a year, with regional prices in India and parts of Asia and Africa, and a 7-day money-back guarantee on the first payment; the pricing section shows the current offer for your country.
Which markets does Ampeld cover?
41 markets with one method: gold, silver, WTI and Brent oil and natural gas; ten forex pairs; seven stock indices including the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and DAX; eleven US stocks; and eight crypto pairs.
Is Ampeld a signal service?
No. It models where the crowd's stops probably sit and measures how far markets move; it never says buy or sell. Our published tests found no edge: the modeled levels were reached no more often than a placebo, and EMA, MACD, RSI and stochastic signals worked 49-51% of the time on the hourly chart across our markets.
Educational content, not financial or investment advice. Figures describe history and models, not what will happen. Trading leveraged products such as CFDs, forex and crypto derivatives carries a high risk of losing money.