Gold is a hard currency, and the ISO symbol for spot gold is XAU. Gold can be traded against most other currencies in the forex market as part of a currency pair. Gold also has a quoted exchange rate when traded against national currencies like the U.S. dollar, euro or pound sterling. For example, XAU/USD refers to the price of gold quoted in U.S. dollar terms as a currency pair, while XAU/EUR refers to gold quoted in euro terms.