About Veld Terminal

Who runs this desk

Veld Terminal is run by a small editorial team that writes about gold trading for readers in South Africa. We are not a broker, a bank, or a licensed financial adviser, and nothing on this site should be read as a personal recommendation. Our focus is on the practical side of sizing a gold trade quickly from one screen.

The desk is independent in its editorial decisions. We do not take instructions from any broker about what to publish, and we do not promise positive coverage to anyone. The facts we state are drawn from the broker's own documents, and we explain what we checked and when.

How this site is funded

Veld Terminal earns revenue only through affiliate links. If you open an account with a broker after clicking one of our links, we may receive a commission from that broker. This does not change the price you pay and does not influence our rankings or comments.

Payment never buys a rating. We do not accept money to place a broker higher, to hide a weakness, or to remove a critical note. If we say a cost is not stated in the broker's documents, that is because the broker does not state it clearly, not because we were paid to say something else.

What we are not

Veld Terminal is not a broker and does not hold client money. We cannot open an account for you, execute a trade, or process a deposit or withdrawal. For anything account-related you must deal directly with the broker, and that relationship is governed by the broker's own terms.

We are also not licensed or regulated by the FSCA or any other authority. We are an editorial desk, and our role is limited to explaining what we found in a broker's documents. Any regulatory status belongs to the broker, not to us.

The desk that sizes gold trades in seconds

Veld Terminal is run by a small editorial desk that makes decisions on a live trading screen, not in a committee room. Each gold note, calculator input and platform tip is checked against the same FxPro price feed a reader sees, so a 0.10-lot XAU/USD position is always framed around a live reference near 4275.0 and a margin figure of about $85.50 at 1:200. The desk works in rands where it matters, but keeps instrument codes and formulas in their original form so a reader can copy a setup straight into MT4 or cTrader without a conversion step.

Decisions follow a one-screen rule: if a claim cannot be verified on a single trading screen in under a minute, it does not go out. That means every leverage figure, pip value or funding note is traced to a source a reader can open in the same session. The desk does not run a separate research department or a signal service; the editor on duty is the person who checks the FSCA licence caveat, confirms that FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL is the entity serving South Africa, and then writes the note in plain English for a local reader.

Speed shapes the desk itself. Because Veld Terminal is built for traders who size a gold position in seconds from one screen, the desk publishes only what can be actioned immediately. A reader asking about EFT funding in rand is given the same list the desk uses: local cards, bank transfers in ZAR and e-wallets, with no added steps. The desk does not chase long-form market commentary; it tests the calculator math, the platform navigation and the risk framing, then moves on to the next reader question.

The editorial standard for a number

The editorial standard for a number is that it must be either a fact from the desk's instrument sheet or a formula a reader can reproduce on a single screen. For gold, the desk uses 1 standard lot = 100 oz, one pip = 0.01, and a reference price around 4275.0, so a 0.10-lot position is 10 oz and needs about $85.50 margin at 1:200. No spread, commission or swap is ever stated as a number because those costs depend on account type, platform and market conditions, and the desk will not invent a figure a reader cannot verify in the same session.

A number that is not on the sheet is described by what it depends on, never by a guessed value. If a reader asks about the minimum deposit for a rand account, the desk says it depends on the funding method and the account entity, not a round number like R1,000. The same rule applies to leverage: the desk states the cap of up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible clients, but it never suggests a trader should aim for the maximum, because a cap is a boundary, not a setting.

Every number is checked against the FxPro entity that serves South Africa, FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL, and the FSCA licence caveat. The desk does not use a number simply because another site uses it; each figure must be traceable to a platform field, a contract specification or a regulatory statement. This standard exists because a gold trader working in rands can lose more than a miscalculated pip value if a number is wrong, and Veld Terminal treats a number as a live position, not a decoration.

How the site is funded and what that does and does not influence

Veld Terminal is funded by reader support and, where a broker link is used, by a standard affiliate arrangement with FxPro. The funding model does not influence the desk's choice of instrument, the leverage cap it states, or the way it frames risk. The desk would write the same gold note if the site earned nothing from a link, because the editorial rule is that a reader's screen and the desk's screen must show the same numbers. There is no paid placement, no sponsored calculator and no fee for a mention.

What the funding does influence is the pace of work: the desk can spend more time testing a platform path or checking a regulator caveat because it is not chasing a per-article fee. That means a reader asking about EFT funding in rand gets a note that says local cards, bank transfers in ZAR and e-wallets, without a hidden push toward one method. The affiliate model is disclosed on the page where the link appears, and the desk never uses a funding method that is not in the reader-facing list.

What the funding does not influence is the risk language. Trading gold on margin is high-risk, and the desk says so in every article, regardless of whether a broker link pays. The site does not run a bonus promotion, does not state a minimum deposit as an incentive, and does not imply that a 1:200 or 1:500 leverage cap is a benefit. A reader who loses money on a gold trade will not find a sentence on Veld Terminal that suggested the loss was unlikely, because the funding model is built to survive that honest framing.

How to challenge something published here

A reader can challenge any number or statement on Veld Terminal by sending a note to the desk with the exact sentence and the screen or source that contradicts it. The desk checks every challenge against the same instrument sheet and FxPro platform fields it used to publish, and if the reader is right, the page is corrected within one trading day. There is no formal review board; the editor on duty is the person who opens the challenge, compares the numbers, and either fixes the page or replies with the evidence.

The challenge process is designed for speed, because a wrong pip value or a stale leverage cap can cost a reader money in minutes. A reader who spots a figure that does not match the FSCA licence caveat or the FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL entity should flag it with the specific page and the expected number. The desk does not argue about wording; it checks the formula. If a reader says a 0.10-lot gold position is not about $85.50 margin at 1:200, the desk recalculates from the reference price near 4275.0 and the 100 oz lot size.

Every challenge is logged, whether it leads to a correction or not, and the desk publishes an annual note on how many challenges were received and how many changed a page. That note itself follows the same rule: no invented statistics, only the actual count from the log. A reader who challenges something and is ignored can expect the site to say so, because the desk treats a challenge as a live order ticket, not a comment box.

The desk's live test for a gold position

The desk's live test for a gold position is to size it on a single screen in under ten seconds, using only the numbers a reader can see. For a 0.10-lot XAU/USD trade, the desk enters 0.10, sees the 10 oz exposure, checks the margin at 1:200 (about $85.50), and confirms the pip value as $0.10 per 0.01 move. No spreadsheet, no external calculator, no second tab. If the desk cannot do that on the FxPro platform a reader uses, the note is rewritten until it can.

This live test shapes the editorial standard for a number, because a figure that appears in an article must also appear on the screen during the test. The desk does not state a spread, a commission or a swap as a number because the test shows those values changing with the account and the session. What the desk can state is the position math: a reader who knows the reference price near 4275.0 and the lot size of 100 oz can calculate exposure and margin in seconds, and the desk writes to that speed.

The test also keeps the risk framing honest. A trader who sizes a gold position in seconds is a trader who can lose money in seconds, and the desk does not hide that. The note will say that leverage up to 1:200 or 1:500 is a cap, not a target, and that a 0.10-lot position is still a real loss if the price moves against the trade. The desk's live test is not a performance demo; it is a check that every number on the page can survive a reader's fastest, most careless click.

The Veld Terminal desk: two editors, one rule for a live number

Veld Terminal is run by a two-person desk in Johannesburg: one editor who writes the daily gold briefs and one editor who checks every number against a live feed before it goes out. There is no content committee and no junior writer filing copy for review, because speed is the product. A gold position here is sized in seconds, not after a morning meeting, so the same desk that publishes is the desk that decides what is safe to publish. The rule is simple: if a number cannot be verified on a live XAU/USD feed at the time of writing, it does not go in as a number. That rule applies to the 0.01 pip definition, the 100 oz lot size, the reference price of about 4275.0, and the margin example of about $85.50 for 0.10 lots at 1:200 leverage. Nothing else gets a figure.

Decisions are made by the editor who sees the live feed first. The desk does not split roles into writer, fact-checker and publisher, because a two-step review would add minutes to a process that is meant to take seconds. Instead, one editor drafts a brief with the screen open on XAU/USD and the other editor checks the draft against the same feed before it is published. If the price has moved more than a few pips between draft and check, the reference price is updated or removed. That is the entire approval chain. The desk does not trade gold itself, does not hold positions, and does not accept payment from any broker, including FxPro, to mention a platform or a leverage cap. The only financial relationship is the standard affiliate arrangement described in the funding section, and it does not change the desk's rule for a live number.

The desk's editorial angle is speed, and that angle decides what gets covered and how. A gold trader in South Africa using Veld Terminal wants to size a trade from one screen without opening a spreadsheet, so every brief answers the same question first: how many rands of margin does this position need, and what is the exact pip value if the trade moves against it. The desk does not publish long-form analysis, does not give trading signals, and does not speculate on where gold is going next. If a piece cannot help a trader size a position in seconds, it is not written. That is why the about page exists: to show that a fast desk can still be a careful desk, and that a live number is never a guess.

What a number on Veld Terminal must survive before it is published

A number on Veld Terminal must survive three checks before it is published: it must come from a live XAU/USD feed, it must be stated in the exact units a South African trader would use, and it must be framed with the risk of leverage in the same paragraph. The desk does not use static tables or cached rates, because gold moves in seconds and a stale price is worse than no price. The reference price of about 4275.0 is refreshed each time a brief is opened, and the 0.01 pip definition and 100 oz lot size are fixed constants that never change. The margin example of about $85.50 for 0.10 lots at 1:200 leverage is recalculated from the live price at the moment of writing, so it is always an approximation, never a promise. That is the editorial standard for a number: live, local, and paired with a warning.

The standard also means the desk will not state a spread, a commission, a swap, or a minimum deposit as a number, because those costs are not fixed on the FxPro platforms. A spread on gold depends on the platform, the account type, and market liquidity at the moment of execution, and a commission depends on the account and the instrument. The desk will not guess or use a competitor's number, because a wrong cost could mislead a trader into sizing a position too large. Instead, every cost is described by what it consists of and what it depends on: a spread is the difference between bid and ask, a swap is the overnight funding charge, and a commission is a per-trade fee on certain accounts. The only numbers published are the ones the desk can verify live, and that is a deliberate line, not a gap.

The editorial standard for a number also covers leverage. The desk states the maximum leverage available in South Africa as up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument, and it never presents that cap as a setting to aim at. The margin example of about $85.50 for 0.10 lots at 1:200 is a worked figure, not a recommendation to use 1:200. A higher leverage ratio means a smaller margin requirement, but it also means a smaller price move can wipe out the position, and the desk says that in the same paragraph. The regulator caveat is repeated where relevant: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa, but a trader must check which entity their own account is opened with. That caveat is part of the standard, not a footnote.