Free tool · Market statistics
GBP/USD (GBPUSD) volatility by hour, day and month
When GBP/USD moves, how much, and on which days — measured on 1513 trading days of real one-minute data from our broker feed, 2021-01-04 to 2026-10-30. Descriptive statistics of the past, not a forecast.
Volatility by hour
Over the last 12 months, the hour with the widest average range on GBP/USD was 15:00–16:00 UTC (22.9 bp), and the quietest was 21:00–22:00 UTC (6.9 bp): 3.3 times smaller.
Average range of each one-hour bar, in basis points of price. Hours without prices in our feed are not drawn.
Table: range by hour, UTC, last 12 months
| Hour (UTC) | Mean, bp | Median, bp | Hours measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 9.2 | 7.8 | 89 |
| 01:00 | 9.1 | 8.2 | 89 |
| 02:00 | 8.4 | 7.4 | 89 |
| 03:00 | 7.5 | 6.6 | 88 |
| 04:00 | 7.0 | 6.1 | 88 |
| 05:00 | 7.3 | 6.6 | 88 |
| 06:00 | 9.7 | 8.7 | 88 |
| 07:00 | 15.5 | 12.1 | 88 |
| 08:00 | 16.7 | 15.1 | 88 |
| 09:00 | 15.6 | 13.6 | 88 |
| 10:00 | 12.7 | 11.6 | 88 |
| 11:00 | 13.7 | 12.2 | 88 |
| 12:00 | 16.0 | 12.9 | 88 |
| 13:00 | 19.2 | 17.7 | 88 |
| 14:00 | 18.0 | 17.1 | 88 |
| 15:00 | 22.9 | 21.8 | 88 |
| 16:00 | 16.1 | 14.7 | 88 |
| 17:00 | 13.5 | 12.3 | 88 |
| 18:00 | 10.9 | 10.5 | 88 |
| 19:00 | 10.2 | 8.4 | 88 |
| 20:00 | 9.3 | 7.3 | 88 |
| 21:00 | 6.9 | 6.5 | 88 |
| 22:00 | 8.0 | 7.3 | 89 |
| 23:00 | 10.0 | 8.4 | 89 |
Day of the week
Thursday has the widest average daily range (0.81%), Monday the narrowest (0.70%). Only Monday shows an average open-to-close return that is distinguishable from zero at 95% confidence (marked •). Even then it is one measurement over a few years: check the year-by-year table before reading anything into it.
| Day | Average range | Open → close, mean ± 95% CI | Up days | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 0.70 % | +0.108 % ± 0.051 • | 60.1 % | 301 |
| Tuesday | 0.73 % | +0.026 % ± 0.053 | 51.0 % | 304 |
| Wednesday | 0.78 % | +0.035 % ± 0.057 | 54.3 % | 302 |
| Thursday | 0.81 % | +0.024 % ± 0.067 | 53.0 % | 302 |
| Friday | 0.75 % | −0.006 % ± 0.060 | 50.0 % | 304 |
Average open → close return, year by year (%)
| Year | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | +0.119 | −0.001 | +0.012 | +0.052 | −0.033 |
| 2022 | −0.057 | +0.029 | +0.143 | +0.013 | −0.135 |
| 2023 | +0.123 | +0.060 | +0.012 | +0.005 | +0.082 |
| 2024 | +0.059 | +0.009 | +0.025 | +0.025 | +0.019 |
| 2025 | +0.221 | +0.051 | +0.033 | +0.057 | +0.009 |
| 2026 | +0.192 | +0.007 | −0.024 | −0.017 | +0.029 |
Monthly seasonality
Return of each calendar month, from the first open to the last close. With only 6 years per month, one unusual year moves the average a lot: the median and the year-by-year table are there to show it.
| Month | Mean | Median | Positive | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | +0.37 % | +0.06 % | 50 % | 6 |
| February | −0.11 % | −0.29 % | 33 % | 6 |
| March | +0.17 % | −0.49 % | 50 % | 6 |
| April | +0.49 % | +1.09 % | 67 % | 6 |
| May | +0.69 % | +0.59 % | 67 % | 6 |
| June | −0.66 % | −1.05 % | 33 % | 6 |
| July | +0.22 % | +0.83 % | 83 % | 6 |
| August | −0.32 % | −0.28 % | 50 % | 6 |
| September | −1.72 % | −2.06 % | 17 % | 6 |
| October | −0.12 % | +0.31 % | 50 % | 6 |
| November | +1.18 % | +0.83 % | 60 % | 5 |
| December | +0.65 % | +0.90 % | 80 % | 5 |
Every month, year by year (%)
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | +0.4 | +1.6 | −1.0 | +0.2 | +2.9 | −2.6 | +0.6 | −1.0 | −2.0 | +1.6 | −2.8 | +1.7 |
| 2022 | −0.6 | −0.2 | −2.0 | −4.2 | +0.2 | −3.4 | +0.0 | −4.5 | −4.0 | +2.7 | +5.2 | +0.4 |
| 2023 | +2.0 | −2.4 | +2.6 | +2.0 | −0.9 | +2.1 | +1.1 | −1.3 | −3.7 | −0.4 | +3.9 | +0.9 |
| 2024 | −0.3 | −0.4 | +0.1 | −1.0 | +2.1 | −0.7 | +1.6 | +2.2 | +1.9 | −3.5 | −1.3 | −1.7 |
| 2025 | −1.0 | +2.2 | +2.7 | +3.2 | +1.0 | +2.0 | −3.8 | +2.3 | −0.4 | −2.2 | +0.8 | +1.9 |
| 2026 | +1.6 | −1.5 | −1.3 | +2.9 | −1.1 | −1.4 | +1.8 | +0.4 | −2.1 | +1.0 | — | — |
Trading sessions
How much of the day's range happens inside each session, over the last 12 months. Sessions overlap, so the shares do not add up to 100%. A session with no prices in our feed is not listed.
| Session | Average range | Median share of the day's range | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo 09:00–15:00 Tokyo time | 19.5 bp | 33 % | 258 |
| London 08:00–16:30 London time | 45.3 bp | 79 % | 258 |
| New York 08:00–17:00 New York time | 42.8 bp | 76 % | 258 |
Volatility over the last year
ATR (14) as a percentage of the price, one point per trading day.
How it is measured
- One-minute bid prices from the cTrader broker feed we use for our own backtests: 1513 complete trading days, 2021-01-04 to 2026-10-30.
- A trading day is the broker's: it closes at 17:00 New York time, as in cTrader. Partial days (holidays) are left out.
- Range = high − low of the period, as a share of its opening price. 1 bp (basis point) = 0.01%. ATR is Wilder's 14-day average true range.
- The hourly profile is measured in UTC and kept separately for US summer and winter time, so the hours shown in your time zone stay right all year.
- Updated every day after the market data sync. These are descriptive statistics of the past: they are not a forecast and not a trading signal.