About Bendigo Bullion

Who runs this desk

Bendigo Bullion is a small editorial desk that writes about gold (XAU/USD) trading for Australian readers. It is run by writers who research brokers and explain how the mechanics work, not by sales staff. There is no trading desk, no client accounts and no money handled here.

The desk is not a broker, not a bank and not a licensed financial adviser. It does not hold an Australian Financial Services licence and does not claim to be regulated by ASIC or any other body. Anything published here is general educational material, and it is written to be checked rather than taken on faith.

How to challenge a fact, a figure or a framing on this site

You can challenge anything published here by writing to the desk with the page address, the sentence you dispute and the source you are relying on. The desk reads every challenge and aims to respond with a substantive answer rather than an acknowledgement. If the challenge is about a number, the response will say where the published figure came from and, if your source is better, the page will be corrected and the correction noted. If the challenge is about framing, such as whether a risk warning is strong enough, the desk will explain the editorial rule it applied and change the wording if the rule was not followed.

Challenges are most useful when they point to a specific document, such as a regulator's notice, a broker's product disclosure statement or a platform contract specification. For gold, a challenge that cites the contract size or the pip value is easy to check because those are fixed at 100 oz per standard lot and 0.01 respectively. A challenge to a leverage figure is also easy to check, because the only ratio this site publishes for Australia is the cap of up to 1:200. A challenge that says a cost is too high or too low without a source cannot be acted on, because the desk does not publish cost figures it cannot source.

Every upheld challenge results in a visible change to the page, not a silent edit. The desk keeps a record of what was changed and why, and it will tell you when the change goes live. If a challenge is not upheld, you will get the reason and the source the desk relied on, so you can take the point further if you disagree. The desk does not remove criticism from readers, and it does not ask anyone to sign a confidentiality agreement before raising a concern. The point of the process is to make the page more accurate, not to defend the original wording.

How this desk is run and how decisions get made

The desk is run by a small editorial team that writes and reviews every piece before it goes live, with no single person able to publish unchecked. Decisions about what to cover and what to leave out are made in a weekly planning meeting where the team looks at reader questions, recent regulatory notices from ASIC and overseas bodies, and gaps in existing coverage. Any change to a published page needs a second pair of eyes, so a factual correction or a new figure is signed off by someone other than the original writer. That two-person rule is the main safeguard against a single error reaching you.

Decisions about instrument coverage, such as keeping gold (XAU/USD) as the focus, are made against a simple test: can we describe the cost structure, the margin mechanics and the venue without guessing? If the answer is no, the topic waits. For gold, the desk works from the given contract size of 100 oz per standard lot and a pip of 0.01, and it will only quote a leverage figure where one has been supplied, such as the 1:200 cap available in Australia. Anything outside those facts is described as depending on the broker, not invented.

The team does not take direction from any broker on what to publish, and no external party sees a page before it goes live. When a broker's terms change, the desk updates the relevant page and notes the change in plain language rather than quietly editing the number. If a fact cannot be confirmed, it is left out and the page says what the outcome depends on instead. That approach means some pages carry fewer numbers than you might expect, but every number that appears has been checked against a source the desk can point to.

How the desk is paid

Affiliate links are the only revenue. When a reader opens a broker account through a link on this site, the broker may pay the desk a referral fee. That fee does not change what a reader pays the broker, and it does not buy a rating, a ranking or a softer write-up.

Payment never buys a rating or hides a weakness. If a broker has a drawback that matters to an Australian reader, it is written down even when that broker pays a referral fee. Where there is no affiliate relationship, the desk says so plainly rather than pretending the coverage is the same.

The rule we apply before any number goes on the page

A number only appears on this site if the desk can point to where it came from, and if it cannot, the page says what the figure depends on rather than inventing one. That rule is why you will see the gold contract size stated as 100 oz per standard lot and the pip as 0.01, because those are fixed by the instrument, but you will not see a spread, a commission, a swap rate or a minimum deposit quoted as a number. Those costs vary by account and by venue, so the honest treatment is to explain what they consist of and let you check the current schedule with the broker.

The same rule applies to leverage. The only ratio this site will state for Australian residents is the cap of up to 1:200, because that is the figure supplied. It is described as a cap, not a target, and the worked margin example is tied to that cap: at 1:200, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin. The desk will not publish any other ratio, even as an illustration, because a number without a source is worse than no number. Where a reader needs a figure the desk does not have, the page tells them which document or calculator to use instead.

Every number is checked against the source before publication and re-checked when the page is next reviewed. If a source cannot be produced, the number is removed and replaced with a description of what it depends on. That is a deliberate trade: the page may feel less complete, but nothing on it is a guess. The desk also avoids words like competitive or low when describing a cost it has no figure for, because those words imply a comparison the desk cannot back up. What you get instead is the structure of the cost and the questions to ask.

What the desk will not do

The desk will not manage money, place trades, recover funds or give personal advice about whether gold suits a particular person. It will not tell a reader which position size to take or whether to buy or sell. Those decisions belong with the reader and, where needed, a licensed adviser.

The desk also keeps the regulator caveat in front of readers. FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC. It does not hold an ASIC licence, so Australian residents deal with an offshore entity — check this before funding. That sentence appears wherever it is relevant, not buried in a footer.

What this desk covers and the limits it works within

This desk covers gold (XAU/USD) as its main instrument, with a focus on how the contract works, how margin is calculated and what a trade costs in structure rather than in a single quoted number. It does not cover every broker or every account type, and it does not publish signals, price predictions or performance claims. The limit is deliberate: a small desk cannot verify facts across the whole market, so it stays with the instrument it can describe precisely. For gold, that means the contract size of 100 oz per standard lot, the pip of 0.01 and a reference price of about 4275.0 are the fixed points around which the explanation is built.

The desk also works within a regulatory limit that Australian readers need to know. FxPro, the broker referenced on this site, is licensed by the FCA in the UK and by CySEC, but it does not hold an ASIC licence, so Australian residents deal with an offshore entity. The desk states that plainly on every relevant page and does not soften it. That is not a comment on the broker's conduct; it is a fact about the licence position that changes what recourse you have. The desk's coverage stops at explaining that position and does not extend to advising you whether to open an account.

What the desk will not do is fill a gap with a number it does not have. If a page needs a spread, a commission, a swap or a minimum deposit to make sense, the page will say that those figures depend on the account and the venue and will point you to the broker's own schedule. That limit is why some sections read as a list of dependencies rather than a list of figures. The desk accepts that trade because a reader who knows what to check is better served than a reader who is given a number that may be out of date or wrong for their account.

Who pays for this site and where that money does and does not reach

The site is funded by the desk's own resources, and no broker pays for coverage, placement or a favourable mention. That means the money behind the page does not come from FxPro or any other venue, so there is no commercial relationship that could steer what gets written. The desk does not run affiliate links that pay per sign-up, and it does not accept payment to remove or soften a risk warning. If that ever changes, the change would be disclosed on this page before it took effect, because a funding model that is not visible is the one readers should distrust.

Funding does influence one thing: how much time the desk can spend on a page. A self-funded desk cannot cover every instrument or every broker, so it chooses depth over breadth and keeps gold (XAU/USD) as the main instrument. That choice is editorial, not commercial. The desk also funds its own access to platform documentation and regulatory notices, so it does not rely on a broker's marketing material for the facts. Where a fact comes from a regulator, such as the FCA and CySEC licences held by FxPro and the absence of an ASIC licence, that is stated plainly and is not softened by any funding arrangement.

What funding does not influence is the risk framing. Every page that mentions leverage says it is a cap and not a setting to aim at, and every page that mentions cost says what the cost consists of rather than calling it cheap. The desk would rather lose a reader who wants a promotional tone than publish a sentence it cannot stand behind. If you see a claim on this site that reads like marketing, it is a mistake, and the desk wants to hear about it through the challenge route described below.

The local details we keep in view for Australian readers

Australian readers fund an account through PayID or bank transfer, and the desk describes those methods as the local route without naming any other. That matters because the funding method affects how quickly you can meet a margin call, and a gold position at 1:200 can move against you before a bank transfer clears. The desk does not quote a deposit time or a minimum amount, because those depend on the broker and the bank. What it does say is that the margin figure of about $85.50 for a 0.10-lot gold position at 1:200 is the amount that must be available, not the amount you should fund with.

Amounts on this site are shown in Australian dollars where a figure is given, and the reference price for gold is stated in US dollars because that is how XAU/USD is quoted. The desk keeps the currency codes in Latin script so there is no ambiguity about which dollar is meant, and it does not convert between them without saying so. That is a small point but it matters when you are checking a margin requirement against your account balance. A margin figure in A$ and a price in US$ are not the same unit, and the desk will not blur them to make a sentence read more smoothly.

The regulator caveat is repeated wherever it is relevant: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and it does not hold an ASIC licence, so Australian residents deal with an offshore entity and should check that before funding. The desk treats that as a local detail, not a footnote, because it changes the dispute resolution path available to you. It does not say whether that position is good or bad for you; it says what it is and leaves the decision with you. That is the same standard the desk applies to every number and every claim on the site.