Free tool · Market statistics
USD/CAD (USDCAD) volatility by hour, day and month
When USD/CAD 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 USD/CAD was 15:00–16:00 UTC (17.4 bp), and the quietest was 04:00–05:00 UTC (4.9 bp): 3.5 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 | 6.7 | 5.7 | 89 |
| 01:00 | 6.8 | 5.7 | 89 |
| 02:00 | 6.4 | 5.5 | 89 |
| 03:00 | 5.4 | 4.7 | 88 |
| 04:00 | 4.9 | 4.6 | 88 |
| 05:00 | 5.0 | 4.2 | 88 |
| 06:00 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 88 |
| 07:00 | 8.1 | 7.6 | 88 |
| 08:00 | 9.2 | 8.1 | 88 |
| 09:00 | 8.3 | 7.4 | 88 |
| 10:00 | 7.1 | 6.2 | 88 |
| 11:00 | 7.7 | 6.9 | 88 |
| 12:00 | 10.4 | 8.9 | 88 |
| 13:00 | 14.1 | 11.9 | 88 |
| 14:00 | 14.3 | 14.0 | 88 |
| 15:00 | 17.4 | 15.9 | 88 |
| 16:00 | 13.5 | 12.1 | 88 |
| 17:00 | 10.4 | 9.6 | 88 |
| 18:00 | 8.8 | 7.4 | 88 |
| 19:00 | 8.3 | 7.1 | 88 |
| 20:00 | 8.1 | 6.3 | 88 |
| 21:00 | 7.2 | 6.6 | 88 |
| 22:00 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 89 |
| 23:00 | 7.1 | 5.6 | 89 |
Day of the week
Friday has the widest average daily range (0.62%), Monday the narrowest (0.55%). No day shows an average open-to-close return that is distinguishable from zero at 95% confidence.
| Day | Average range | Open → close, mean ± 95% CI | Up days | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 0.55 % | +0.020 % ± 0.043 | 54.5 % | 301 |
| Tuesday | 0.59 % | +0.043 % ± 0.043 | 54.3 % | 304 |
| Wednesday | 0.58 % | +0.016 % ± 0.043 | 53.6 % | 302 |
| Thursday | 0.60 % | +0.031 % ± 0.045 | 55.3 % | 302 |
| Friday | 0.62 % | +0.044 % ± 0.047 | 58.6 % | 304 |
Average open → close return, year by year (%)
| Year | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | +0.013 | +0.066 | −0.039 | +0.036 | +0.037 |
| 2022 | +0.072 | +0.018 | −0.058 | +0.107 | +0.083 |
| 2023 | −0.038 | +0.086 | +0.076 | −0.011 | −0.008 |
| 2024 | +0.043 | +0.089 | +0.063 | +0.006 | +0.115 |
| 2025 | −0.014 | −0.004 | +0.003 | +0.054 | −0.009 |
| 2026 | +0.051 | −0.010 | +0.062 | −0.010 | +0.047 |
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 | +0.17 % | +0.48 % | 67 % | 6 |
| February | +0.26 % | +0.04 % | 50 % | 6 |
| March | −0.36 % | −0.66 % | 17 % | 6 |
| April | −0.60 % | −0.87 % | 50 % | 6 |
| May | −0.47 % | −0.70 % | 33 % | 6 |
| June | +0.76 % | +1.09 % | 67 % | 6 |
| July | +0.18 % | +0.08 % | 50 % | 6 |
| August | +0.34 % | +0.16 % | 50 % | 6 |
| September | +1.81 % | +1.01 % | 100 % | 6 |
| October | +0.09 % | −0.35 % | 50 % | 6 |
| November | −0.02 % | −0.22 % | 40 % | 5 |
| December | −0.27 % | −1.06 % | 40 % | 5 |
Every month, year by year (%)
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | +0.4 | −0.4 | −1.3 | −2.1 | −1.8 | +2.8 | +0.5 | +1.1 | +0.6 | −2.3 | +3.2 | −1.1 |
| 2022 | +0.6 | −0.2 | −1.3 | +2.8 | −1.4 | +1.8 | −0.6 | +2.6 | +5.4 | −1.4 | −1.4 | +1.0 |
| 2023 | −1.8 | +2.6 | −0.9 | +0.4 | +0.3 | −2.4 | −0.4 | +2.5 | +0.4 | +2.3 | −2.2 | −2.3 |
| 2024 | +1.5 | +1.1 | −0.2 | +1.8 | −1.0 | +0.4 | +1.0 | −2.2 | +0.3 | +3.1 | +0.5 | +2.8 |
| 2025 | +1.1 | −1.8 | −0.4 | −4.1 | −0.4 | −1.0 | +1.8 | −0.8 | +1.4 | +0.7 | −0.2 | −1.8 |
| 2026 | −0.7 | +0.3 | +2.0 | −2.4 | +1.6 | +2.9 | −1.3 | −1.1 | +2.7 | −1.8 | — | — |
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 | 14.0 bp | 33 % | 258 |
| London 08:00–16:30 London time | 32.6 bp | 79 % | 258 |
| New York 08:00–17:00 New York time | 33.1 bp | 80 % | 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.