Free tool · Market statistics
USD/JPY (USDJPY) volatility by hour, day and month
When USD/JPY 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/JPY was 15:00–16:00 UTC (20.0 bp), and the quietest was 21:00–22:00 UTC (6.5 bp): 3.1 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 | 19.2 | 17.8 | 89 |
| 01:00 | 16.8 | 15.5 | 89 |
| 02:00 | 14.1 | 12.5 | 89 |
| 03:00 | 11.5 | 10.3 | 89 |
| 04:00 | 12.5 | 11.8 | 88 |
| 05:00 | 12.1 | 11.3 | 88 |
| 06:00 | 13.8 | 12.2 | 88 |
| 07:00 | 17.8 | 14.4 | 88 |
| 08:00 | 16.2 | 14.9 | 88 |
| 09:00 | 15.7 | 14.1 | 88 |
| 10:00 | 11.8 | 10.5 | 88 |
| 11:00 | 10.7 | 9.6 | 88 |
| 12:00 | 13.2 | 10.8 | 88 |
| 13:00 | 19.6 | 16.2 | 88 |
| 14:00 | 18.3 | 17.1 | 88 |
| 15:00 | 20.0 | 17.9 | 88 |
| 16:00 | 15.2 | 13.4 | 88 |
| 17:00 | 12.6 | 10.3 | 88 |
| 18:00 | 10.4 | 8.7 | 88 |
| 19:00 | 11.3 | 9.5 | 88 |
| 20:00 | 9.4 | 7.7 | 88 |
| 21:00 | 6.5 | 5.9 | 88 |
| 22:00 | 8.3 | 6.2 | 89 |
| 23:00 | 13.8 | 11.7 | 89 |
Day of the week
Thursday has the widest average daily range (0.88%), Monday the narrowest (0.77%). Only Monday, Tuesday, 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 | 0.77 % | +0.139 % ± 0.054 • | 62.8 % | 301 |
| Tuesday | 0.79 % | +0.065 % ± 0.060 • | 59.9 % | 304 |
| Wednesday | 0.86 % | +0.095 % ± 0.067 • | 62.6 % | 302 |
| Thursday | 0.88 % | −0.033 % ± 0.075 | 52.0 % | 302 |
| Friday | 0.88 % | +0.041 % ± 0.071 | 58.6 % | 304 |
Average open → close return, year by year (%)
| Year | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | +0.059 | +0.051 | +0.132 | +0.049 | +0.035 |
| 2022 | +0.312 | +0.099 | +0.027 | −0.067 | +0.042 |
| 2023 | +0.175 | +0.051 | +0.056 | −0.114 | +0.148 |
| 2024 | +0.125 | +0.056 | +0.193 | +0.051 | −0.026 |
| 2025 | +0.053 | +0.047 | +0.081 | −0.030 | +0.021 |
| 2026 | +0.107 | +0.092 | +0.081 | −0.095 | +0.021 |
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 | +0.48 % | −0.25 % | 50 % | 6 |
| February | +1.08 % | +1.26 % | 67 % | 6 |
| March | +1.58 % | +1.29 % | 67 % | 6 |
| April | +1.03 % | +0.52 % | 50 % | 6 |
| May | +0.67 % | +0.52 % | 67 % | 6 |
| June | +2.51 % | +2.20 % | 100 % | 6 |
| July | −1.57 % | −1.59 % | 17 % | 6 |
| August | +0.60 % | +0.98 % | 67 % | 6 |
| September | +0.96 % | +0.92 % | 67 % | 6 |
| October | +2.80 % | +2.63 % | 100 % | 6 |
| November | −2.05 % | −1.55 % | 20 % | 5 |
| December | −0.51 % | +0.39 % | 60 % | 5 |
Every month, year by year (%)
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | +1.5 | +1.7 | +3.9 | −1.2 | +0.3 | +1.4 | −1.3 | +0.3 | +1.2 | +2.4 | −0.8 | +1.8 |
| 2022 | +0.1 | −0.1 | +5.9 | +6.8 | −0.8 | +5.5 | −1.8 | +4.3 | +4.3 | +2.8 | −7.1 | −5.0 |
| 2023 | −0.6 | +4.7 | −2.4 | +2.3 | +2.3 | +3.6 | −1.4 | +2.3 | +2.7 | +1.4 | −2.2 | −4.8 |
| 2024 | +4.3 | +2.1 | +0.9 | +4.3 | −0.3 | +2.4 | −6.7 | −2.5 | −1.6 | +5.8 | −1.6 | +5.1 |
| 2025 | −1.3 | −2.7 | −0.5 | −4.6 | +0.8 | +0.1 | +4.7 | −2.4 | +0.7 | +4.2 | +1.4 | +0.4 |
| 2026 | −1.2 | +0.8 | +1.7 | −1.4 | +1.8 | +2.0 | −3.0 | +1.7 | −1.4 | +0.1 | — | — |
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 | 31.0 bp | 49 % | 258 |
| London 08:00–16:30 London time | 43.7 bp | 68 % | 258 |
| New York 08:00–17:00 New York time | 40.5 bp | 64 % | 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.