Free tool · Market statistics
NZD/USD (NZDUSD) volatility by hour, day and month
When NZD/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 NZD/USD was 15:00–16:00 UTC (28.3 bp), and the quietest was 21:00–22:00 UTC (10.1 bp): 2.8 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 | 17.0 | 15.1 | 89 |
| 01:00 | 19.1 | 16.5 | 89 |
| 02:00 | 17.4 | 14.5 | 89 |
| 03:00 | 13.9 | 11.9 | 89 |
| 04:00 | 12.2 | 11.2 | 88 |
| 05:00 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 88 |
| 06:00 | 14.2 | 13.5 | 88 |
| 07:00 | 16.9 | 15.3 | 88 |
| 08:00 | 18.1 | 16.4 | 88 |
| 09:00 | 16.9 | 13.7 | 88 |
| 10:00 | 14.1 | 12.4 | 88 |
| 11:00 | 14.1 | 12.3 | 88 |
| 12:00 | 15.8 | 15.0 | 88 |
| 13:00 | 21.7 | 18.1 | 88 |
| 14:00 | 22.1 | 21.7 | 88 |
| 15:00 | 28.3 | 25.8 | 88 |
| 16:00 | 19.6 | 17.4 | 88 |
| 17:00 | 16.0 | 14.7 | 88 |
| 18:00 | 14.2 | 11.4 | 88 |
| 19:00 | 13.1 | 10.3 | 88 |
| 20:00 | 12.1 | 9.7 | 88 |
| 21:00 | 10.1 | 8.4 | 88 |
| 22:00 | 16.3 | 14.8 | 89 |
| 23:00 | 15.2 | 11.9 | 89 |
Day of the week
Wednesday has the widest average daily range (1.09%), Monday the narrowest (0.89%). 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 | 0.89 % | +0.124 % ± 0.063 • | 58.5 % | 301 |
| Tuesday | 0.97 % | +0.040 % ± 0.067 | 53.0 % | 304 |
| Wednesday | 1.09 % | +0.066 % ± 0.078 | 54.6 % | 302 |
| Thursday | 1.03 % | +0.043 % ± 0.072 | 53.6 % | 302 |
| Friday | 1.01 % | +0.003 % ± 0.080 | 53.3 % | 304 |
Average open → close return, year by year (%)
| Year | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | +0.110 | +0.002 | +0.117 | −0.007 | −0.027 |
| 2022 | −0.070 | +0.107 | +0.249 | +0.014 | −0.015 |
| 2023 | +0.215 | +0.030 | +0.012 | +0.063 | +0.037 |
| 2024 | +0.056 | −0.025 | −0.072 | +0.124 | −0.019 |
| 2025 | +0.249 | +0.061 | +0.127 | +0.009 | +0.022 |
| 2026 | +0.198 | +0.074 | −0.059 | +0.058 | +0.020 |
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 | +0.06 % | +0.52 % | 67 % | 6 |
| February | −0.05 % | +0.01 % | 50 % | 6 |
| March | −0.56 % | −0.23 % | 50 % | 6 |
| April | +0.10 % | +0.68 % | 50 % | 6 |
| May | +1.07 % | +1.11 % | 83 % | 6 |
| June | −1.47 % | −2.20 % | 33 % | 6 |
| July | +0.05 % | +0.32 % | 50 % | 6 |
| August | +0.09 % | +0.19 % | 67 % | 6 |
| September | −2.42 % | −1.77 % | 33 % | 6 |
| October | −0.31 % | −0.60 % | 33 % | 6 |
| November | +1.80 % | +0.38 % | 60 % | 5 |
| December | −0.11 % | +0.56 % | 80 % | 5 |
Every month, year by year (%)
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | +0.2 | +1.0 | −3.5 | +2.5 | +1.4 | −3.8 | −0.1 | +1.3 | −2.0 | +3.9 | −4.7 | +0.5 |
| 2022 | −3.7 | +3.1 | +2.5 | −6.8 | +0.8 | −4.1 | +0.8 | −2.3 | −8.7 | +3.9 | +8.4 | +1.0 |
| 2023 | +1.7 | −4.0 | +1.2 | −1.2 | −2.4 | +2.2 | +1.4 | −3.9 | +0.6 | −2.7 | +5.8 | +2.7 |
| 2024 | −3.2 | −0.5 | −1.6 | −1.5 | +4.4 | −0.6 | −2.3 | +5.2 | +1.8 | −5.8 | −0.9 | −5.3 |
| 2025 | +0.9 | +0.2 | +1.4 | +4.6 | +0.8 | +2.3 | −3.2 | +0.1 | −1.5 | −1.2 | +0.4 | +0.6 |
| 2026 | +4.5 | −0.2 | −3.4 | +3.0 | +1.5 | −4.8 | +3.8 | +0.3 | −4.7 | −0.0 | — | — |
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 | 40.8 bp | 48 % | 258 |
| London 08:00–16:30 London time | 55.4 bp | 65 % | 258 |
| New York 08:00–17:00 New York time | 55.1 bp | 65 % | 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.