Gold accounted for 54% of the value traded by Capital.com’s clients in the United Arab Emirates in the first half of 2026, according to the latest edition of the company’s Pulse Report, which looks at how people trade on its global platform. The UAE was the largest market in the report on every measure, with $1.06 trillion traded across 17.5 million trades by 23,776 active clients, and it accounted for 43.5% of all trading value on the platform during the period.
The report also shows more UAE clients choosing to set a limit on potential losses before they trade. In the first half of 2026, 18.30% of UAE trades had a stop-loss in place, up from 17.08% in the second half of 2025, making the UAE one of five markets in the report where use increased.* Because the UAE market is so large, a one-point rise there adds more protected trades than a five-point rise in Germany.
When a stop-loss did close a trade, the loss tended to be smaller. On average, losses on UAE positions closed by a stop-loss were 40.8% smaller than losses on positions with no stop-loss, slightly above the platform-wide figure of 39.0%. This is a pattern observed in the period’s data and does not show that stop-loss orders cause better results.
A stop-loss is an instruction that automatically closes a trade if the price moves against the trader and reaches a level they chose in advance. In very fast-moving markets a trade can close at a different price from the one set. These figures describe how people trade in each market and are not a measure of skill or results.
Commenting on the findings, Tarik Chebib, CEO MENA at Capital.com, said:
“The UAE is by far the largest market in this analysis, with around $1 trillion traded in the first half and more than half of that in gold. Stop-loss use rose to 18.3% over the period, and because the market is so large, each step forward makes a real difference to the overall picture. Helping more traders set an exit before they trade is where we’re focusing.”
What UAE clients traded
Gold was the most traded market by a wide margin, at $569.6 billion across 9.4 million trades. It was followed by the US Tech 100, an index of large US technology companies, at $192.1 billion (18%), then the Germany 40 index of major German companies at $56.3 billion (5%), US crude oil at $50.8 billion (5%) and the US Wall Street 30 index at $44.9 billion (4%).
Gold’s price reached a series of new highs in January, as central bank gold buying reached its highest level in 25 years, the US dollar weakened and geopolitical tensions persisted. Across the platform, interest moved towards US technology companies from May, and the UK was the only market in the report where the US Tech 100 was traded more than gold. In the UAE, gold held first place across the half.
Oil was the UAE’s fourth-largest market, with 1.8 million trades. Across the whole platform, oil trading rose sharply in March after a supply shock, then fell in each of the following three months as concerns over supply eased.
Strong interest in individual shares
UAE clients also traded the highest values in individual shares of any market in the report. Micron Technology was the most traded share, at $717.6 million, more than double the largest single-share figure in any other market. Tesla, SanDisk, SpaceX and NVIDIA completed the top five, and SanDisk did not appear in any other market’s top five.
The Pulse Report is based on 80.9 million trades closed on Capital.com’s global platform between January and June 2026. Around 32.2 million of these, roughly 40% of the total, were placed in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Australia, the United Kingdom and the UAE, the seven markets the report examines in detail.
