0.80 to 1.45 lots is a cash band with a hard stop
At $10 per 0.10 on 1.00 lot, 0.80 lots risk $400 at 50 pips and $560 at 70 pips. At 1.45 lots those stops risk $725 and $1,015. On $100,000 that is roughly 0.40% to 1.02%. The top of the cap is already above a strict 0.65% band, so 1.45 lots belongs with the shorter stop and without a second metals ticket. Two 1.00 lot ideas are a $35-range story of about $7,000, which is through the $5,000 day and into the static 10% conversation.
The 1-step day is only $4,000. A $35 range on 1.00 lot is $3,500, almost the entire day, and on 1.45 lots it is about $5,075, through the day. If you are on 1-step, live at the 0.80 end or lower. Bot controls should know which product is logged in before they allow 1.45 lots.
The range is the accident and the 70-pip stop is the plan
A $35 move is 350 pips when the pip is 0.10. You are not supposed to use that as the stop. You are supposed to use 50 to 70 pips so the planned loss stays between $400 and $1,015 at the capped lots. A COMEX open that slips past the stop is why the lot is capped. If a 70-pip stop fills 150 pips worse, 1.45 lots adds about $2,175 of slip. You are near $3,200 total, inside $5,000, and finished for new risk. At 2.00 lots you would not be inside.
Place that stop inside 60 seconds or the cap is theoretical. CTI fails naked gold even when the day is flat. Decide 60 pips, click, confirm. Sign up on Venasri so the confirmation is automatic. Calculating the pip count after the fill is how the minute expires.
COMEX open, CPI, and Sunday are the same dollar
Gold does its damage around the US open and around data. Funded CTI accounts cannot straddle the high-impact release in the two minutes before it and the two minutes after. The evaluation may be looser, and a slipped stop still counts either way. A hold through the weekend is permitted and a $30 gap on 1.00 lot is $3,000. That is most of the day you were saving for a planned trade on Monday.
Midnight uses the higher of balance or equity. A gold runner that is $2,000 green at 00:00 can raise Monday base, and the gap the other way spends it. Partial before the clock if the float is large next to $5,000. Wednesday swap on a multi-day gold hold is a debit too. Budget it. The tight-spread reputation of other brokers is irrelevant. This is a CTI equity test.
Flatten the book, not just the gold ticket
Equity Guard near $4,250 on a $100,000 2-step account should close gold and anything correlated with it. A gold stop that fails during a spread blowout should not leave an index long open beside it. On 1-step the guard is near $3,250, and a $35 range on 1.00 lot is already $3,500, so the guard must be able to fire before that range completes. The static 10% floor at $90,000 is not the line a single gold open hits first.
Three qualifying days of $500 are easier with 0.80 lots and a 50-pip stop that pays cleanly than with 1.45 lots aimed at a home run. The home run is how one day becomes the only day, and CTI still wants two more. Keep the cap. Keep the stop on the ticket. Let the guard be the unplanned exit, not the planned strategy.
