VantageMarkets has started offering gold CFD trading seven days a week, joining alengthening list of brokers trying to keep clients in the market through theweekend. The broker launched the product, called XAUUSD247, on Friday and saidthe trading page would go live today (Monday).The timingis not accidental. Gold has been one of the busiest instruments on retailplatforms this year, and several firms have already moved to erase the Saturdayand Sunday gap that opens when spot and futures markets close. CMC Markets added a weekend gold CFD in April, and a string of liquidityproviders followed with round-the-clock versions aimed at brokers.Smaller Contract, HigherLeverageXAUUSD247runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, subject to scheduled maintenance andwhat Vantage described as regional availability. Theproduct uses a one-ounce contract, a fraction of the 100-ounce size on thebroker's standard XAUUSD.There is noseparate commission, though spreads, financing charges and other costs stillapply, the company said. Tiered leverage runs as high as 100 times, dependingon position size, account type and trading conditions.MarcDespallieres, chief executive of Vantage, said the product gives eligibleclients gold access outside normal hours, supported by "transparentproduct mechanics and clearly defined trading controls." Spreads, leverageand limits vary by account type, region and the Vantage entity a client tradesunder, the company added.The firmalso built in exposure caps. Accounts carry net and gross limits at the accountlevel, and once a threshold is reached, the account moves into close-only modeuntil exposure drops back below the line. Vantageapplies one-sided margin for eligible accounts that hold both long and shortpositions at the same time.Brokers Race to Fill theSaturday GapVantage islate rather than early to this trade. CMC Markets listed a "Gold -Weekend" instrument in April for traders who use the metal to hedge andwant to move before the Monday open, then extended it to Australia two months later. The London-listedbroker did not disclose pricing or margin terms for the product.Liquidityproviders have pushed the same way on the wholesale side. Scope Prime rolled out a continuousgold CFD called DIGIXAU for institutional clients in March, pitching it as a way to hedgethrough weekend gaps.Morefollowed into the summer. Match-Prime began supplying 24/7CFDs on gold, silver, oil and US indices through its CySEC-regulated arm in June,offering the feed to brokers rather than end clients.However,unlike LMAX Group's institutional goldperpetual futures,added back in February, XAUUSD247 is a retail-facing CFD priced by the brokerand offered from Vanuatu. Theone-ounce size and the missing commission point at smaller accounts, though theup-to-100x leverage and the close-only trip show the risk of trading a volatilemetal when reference markets are shut.Vantage Keeps Its DistanceFrom CMEThe launchalso lands just before the biggest name in the space makes its own move, andVantage went out of its way to draw a line between the two. The company notedthat XAUUSD247 is an over-the-counter product, separate from anything CME Groupoffers.CME said inJune it would run its one-ounce gold futures around the clock from July 26,extending the always-on model it brought to crypto derivatives earlier in the year. Those areregulated, exchange-traded contracts that clear centrally, a different animalfrom an OTC CFD that a broker quotes and books on its own account.Thedistinction matters for traders. A Vantage client holding XAUUSD247 over theweekend is exposed to the broker's own pricing and to the thinner liquiditythat comes with off-hours gold, rather than a cleared benchmark. Gold'sswings this year, from a record run above $5,000 to a recent retreat, make thatgap between weekday and weekend quotes a live risk.Vantage,which says it has more than 17 years in the business, offers CFDs across forex,commodities, indices, shares, ETFs and bonds. The brokerhas stayed active on the product side, recently wiring its liquidity intoMetaQuotes' institutional matching engine for MT5 brokers.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.