Free tool · Market statistics
FTSE 100 (UK100) volatility by hour, day and month
When FTSE 100 (UK100) moves, how much, and on which days — measured on 1471 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 FTSE 100 (UK100) was 08:00–09:00 UTC (40.1 bp), and the quietest was 04:00–05:00 UTC (9.5 bp): 4.2 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 | 14.2 | 12.8 | 86 |
| 01:00 | 19.1 | 16.9 | 88 |
| 02:00 | 12.4 | 10.8 | 88 |
| 03:00 | 10.7 | 8.9 | 87 |
| 04:00 | 9.5 | 7.8 | 87 |
| 05:00 | 11.2 | 10.0 | 87 |
| 06:00 | 12.3 | 10.5 | 87 |
| 07:00 | 21.8 | 18.9 | 87 |
| 08:00 | 40.1 | 36.1 | 87 |
| 09:00 | 27.3 | 24.1 | 87 |
| 10:00 | 23.4 | 21.4 | 87 |
| 11:00 | 21.4 | 17.6 | 87 |
| 12:00 | 22.2 | 19.0 | 87 |
| 13:00 | 24.7 | 21.7 | 85 |
| 14:00 | 31.2 | 30.1 | 85 |
| 15:00 | 31.1 | 28.4 | 85 |
| 16:00 | 29.6 | 23.8 | 85 |
| 17:00 | 20.6 | 18.2 | 85 |
| 18:00 | 20.2 | 16.2 | 85 |
| 19:00 | 17.9 | 13.9 | 85 |
| 20:00 | 18.8 | 16.3 | 85 |
| 21:00 | 15.2 | 12.6 | 65 |
| 23:00 | 14.8 | 12.9 | 86 |
Day of the week
Thursday has the widest average daily range (1.26%), Tuesday the narrowest (1.19%). Only Monday, Wednesday 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 | 1.19 % | +0.114 % ± 0.078 • | 58.2 % | 273 |
| Tuesday | 1.19 % | −0.005 % ± 0.079 | 49.2 % | 301 |
| Wednesday | 1.21 % | +0.126 % ± 0.093 • | 54.3 % | 302 |
| Thursday | 1.26 % | +0.020 % ± 0.092 | 56.0 % | 300 |
| Friday | 1.23 % | +0.005 % ± 0.104 | 53.6 % | 295 |
Average open → close return, year by year (%)
| Year | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | +0.144 | −0.023 | +0.175 | +0.026 | −0.089 |
| 2022 | +0.095 | +0.145 | +0.158 | −0.320 | +0.095 |
| 2023 | +0.043 | −0.007 | −0.013 | +0.120 | +0.038 |
| 2024 | +0.048 | −0.234 | +0.046 | +0.229 | +0.008 |
| 2025 | +0.122 | +0.093 | +0.272 | +0.077 | −0.023 |
| 2026 | +0.251 | +0.004 | +0.117 | −0.019 | +0.001 |
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 | +1.71 % | +1.87 % | 67 % | 6 |
| February | +1.90 % | +1.50 % | 83 % | 6 |
| March | −0.17 % | −0.56 % | 50 % | 6 |
| April | +1.23 % | +1.44 % | 67 % | 6 |
| May | +0.39 % | +0.98 % | 83 % | 6 |
| June | −0.67 % | +0.04 % | 50 % | 6 |
| July | +2.51 % | +2.87 % | 83 % | 6 |
| August | −0.68 % | −0.24 % | 50 % | 6 |
| September | −1.10 % | −1.31 % | 33 % | 6 |
| October | +1.11 % | +1.74 % | 67 % | 6 |
| November | +1.73 % | +1.97 % | 60 % | 5 |
| December | +1.38 % | +2.49 % | 60 % | 5 |
Every month, year by year (%)
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | −1.6 | +1.8 | +3.4 | +3.6 | +0.2 | +0.2 | −0.3 | +1.2 | −0.9 | +2.4 | −2.3 | +4.4 |
| 2022 | +0.5 | −1.9 | +1.5 | −0.8 | +1.8 | −5.2 | +3.6 | −2.3 | −6.0 | +4.4 | +7.3 | −2.2 |
| 2023 | +4.1 | +1.1 | −2.8 | +2.9 | −5.0 | +1.1 | +1.9 | −3.4 | +2.1 | −3.5 | +2.0 | +3.8 |
| 2024 | −1.8 | +0.6 | +4.0 | +2.1 | +2.1 | −1.5 | +2.2 | +0.3 | −1.8 | −1.6 | +2.0 | −1.5 |
| 2025 | +5.8 | +3.1 | −2.6 | −1.1 | +3.2 | −0.1 | +4.1 | +0.9 | +1.8 | +3.9 | −0.3 | +2.5 |
| 2026 | +3.2 | +6.7 | −4.5 | +0.8 | +0.1 | +1.4 | +3.5 | −0.8 | −1.8 | +1.1 | — | — |
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 | 41.4 bp | 32 % | 252 |
| London 08:00–16:30 London time | 98.3 bp | 82 % | 252 |
| New York 08:00–17:00 New York time | 81.4 bp | 68 % | 250 |
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: 1471 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.