Gold's Sunday gap: 24 opens, which ones filled fastGold FuturesCOMEX_DL:GC1!AKORDERFLOW2Gold futures stop trading on Friday at 21:00 UTC and reopen on Sunday at 22:00 UTC. The first print on Sunday is rarely the Friday close. That difference is the weekend gap, and traders love to say "gaps always fill". Here is what actually happened on COMEX gold over the last six months. HOW IT WAS MEASURED - Data: CME gold futures (GC, continuous front month), 1-hour bars, 24 regular Sunday opens from 26 April to 18 October 2026 (holiday Monday reopens left out). - Gap = Sunday 22:00 UTC open minus the Friday close. - Filled = price trades back to the Friday close. "First hour" = inside the 22:00 bar. THE RESULTS (24 opens) - Filled in the first hour: 5 of 24 - Filled within 4 hours (before the Asia session is well under way): 9 of 24 - Filled within 24 hours: 15 of 24 - Not filled within 48 hours: 9 of 24 - Direction: 18 gaps down, 6 gaps up. Median size about 12 dollars. SIZE IS THE WHOLE STORY - Small gaps (10 dollars or less), 10 cases: 5 filled in the first hour, 6 within 4 hours, 8 within a day, only 2 still open after 48 hours. - Bigger gaps (over 10 dollars), 14 cases: none filled in the first hour, 3 within 4 hours, 7 within a day, 7 still open after 48 hours. So "gaps fill" is mostly true for small gaps. A big weekend gap is information: something changed over the weekend, and half the time price never looks back for two days. TWO RECENT EXAMPLES - 11 October: gap of +0.4 dollars, filled in the first hour. A non-event. - 18 October: gap of about +10 dollars, filled only 14 hours later, after Asia and most of London. WHERE FRIDAY LEFT GOLD (for tomorrow's open) - GC December closed Friday at 4,007.9 (the 20:00-21:00 UTC bar). Spot XAUUSD closed near 3,996. - Order flow in the last hours, CME gold futures market-by-order (Level 3) capture, converted to XAUUSD (about): the biggest passive order of the afternoon was a 193-lot buy iceberg near 4,006 at 16:46 UTC. After it, sellers had the last word: a 32-lot sell iceberg near 3,996 (17:32), a 100-lot aggressive sell near 3,999 (19:55), a 41-lot aggressive buy near 3,994 (20:50) and a 32-lot aggressive sell near 3,996 (20:57), right into the close. - So the Friday close sits under a band where both sides already showed size (about 4,003-4,008 in spot terms). CHECKLIST FOR SUNDAY 22:00 UTC 1. Measure the gap against the Friday close, not against a CFD quote. CFD weekend prices can drift. 2. Under about 10 dollars: a fill is the base case, often in the first hour or two. 3. Over 10 dollars: do not assume a fill. Watch whether the first 1-2 hours build value away from Friday's close. 4. If the gap points into a band where order flow showed size on Friday (here 4,003-4,008), expect a fight there first. 5. Liquidity at 22:00 UTC is thin; first-hour ranges are noisy. Caveats: 24 weekends is a small sample. A continuous futures series can carry a contract roll into a weekend, which can exaggerate a few of the largest gaps. Fills on 1-hour bars are approximate inside the first hour. Order flow: CME gold futures, market-by-order (Level 3) capture via Bookmap + AK FlowBook (NinjaTrader). Chart: VWAP & Volume Profile Order Flow Map on COMEX:GC1! 1h. Education, not a signal.