FX pair volatility compared
GBP/JPY moves the most at 153.9 pips a day, NZD/USD the least at 63.5 — about 2.4× apart. Which one suits you depends less on that ranking than on when you can trade: AUD/JPY does 62% of its range inside the Tokyo window, USD/CAD only 41%.
The ten majors, widest first
The three session columns are high-to-low inside that window alone: Tokyo 00:00–08:00, London 07:00–16:00, New York 12:00–21:00, all UTC — so under daylight saving they sit an hour off the local clock. London and New York overlap, so the three do not sum to the daily range. Each pair name opens its own breakdown by hour, weekday and calendar month.
| Pair | Avg daily rangepips | Relative size | Tokyopips | Londonpips | New Yorkpips | Tokyo shareof the daily range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GBP/JPYpound-yen | 153.9 | 81.1 | 117.9 | 98.1 | 53% | |
| EUR/JPYeuro-yen | 111.1 | 62.0 | 83.6 | 70.7 | 56% | |
| GBP/USDcable | 108.1 | 47.2 | 88.5 | 75.8 | 44% | |
| USD/JPYdollar-yen | 100.5 | 56.1 | 71.5 | 67.3 | 56% | |
| AUD/JPYAussie yen | 90.6 | 56.5 | 60.7 | 55.7 | 62% | |
| USD/CADthe loonie | 86.3 | 35.6 | 67.8 | 69.6 | 41% | |
| EUR/USDeuro-dollar | 77.4 | 34.4 | 63.0 | 57.3 | 44% | |
| AUD/USDthe Aussie | 66.5 | 38.6 | 47.2 | 44.7 | 58% | |
| USD/CHFthe swissie | 65.4 | 28.7 | 54.0 | 48.5 | 44% | |
| NZD/USDthe kiwi | 63.5 | 35.5 | 44.8 | 42.2 | 56% |
Choosing by range
The three widest are GBP/JPY, EUR/JPY, GBP/USD; the three narrowest are AUD/USD, USD/CHF, NZD/USD. Sterling or the yen sits on one side of every pair at the top; the bottom is all dollar majors.
A wider range is neither an advantage nor a drawback on its own — at the same position size it scales both sides equally. GBP/JPY moves about 2.4× NZD/USD, so matching the cash at risk means trading roughly 41% of the size you would use on NZD/USD. The ranking decides how big a position gets, not how profitable it is.
Choosing by the hours you can trade
If your screen time is fixed, the Tokyo share column is more useful than the range ranking. It reads as the share of the daily range that occurs inside the Tokyo window. The most Asian-weighted are AUD/JPY (62%), AUD/USD (58%), NZD/USD (56%); at the other end USD/CAD manages 41%, and does very little before the European open.
A share is a ratio, though, and a high ratio on a quiet pair is still a quiet pair. AUD/JPY has the highest Tokyo share but covers 56.5 pips in those hours; GBP/JPY, at 53%, covers 81.1. If what you need is movement during a fixed few hours, read the Tokyo column, not the share.
- Most Asian-weighted: AUD/JPY (62%), AUD/USD (58%), NZD/USD (56%)
- Most Europe/US-weighted: USD/CAD (41%), GBP/USD (44%), USD/CHF (44%)
Of the ten, only USD/CAD does more of its range in New York than in London. For every other pair the busiest stretch of the day falls inside London hours.
Pairs whose range holds still, and pairs whose range does not
The averages in the table span ten years, and how much the level shifted inside those ten years differs by pair. USD/JPY ran 2.41× between its quietest and loudest year; USD/CHF only 1.61×. Sizing a stop off the former's ten-year average alone is how a stop that looks generous turns out not to be.
A second view is the gap between mean and median. USD/JPY's mean sits 1.21× its median — a few days carry the average. EUR/USD sits at 1.10×, where the average really is describing an ordinary day.
Why the pip column is not comparable across pairs
A yen pair (USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY) has a pip of 0.01; every other pair here uses 0.0001 — two orders of magnitude apart. Reading the column as a ranking is fine. Subtracting one row from another is not: "50 pips wider" means different things on either side of that divide, and part of why yen pairs cluster at the top of this table is the unit itself.
Frequently asked
Which forex pair moves the most?
Among the ten majors compared here, GBP/JPY at 153.9 pips a day — about 2.4× the quietest, NZD/USD at 63.5 pips. Measured over 2,595 trading days, 2016–2025.
Which pairs move during the Asian session?
AUD/JPY takes the largest share of its daily range in the Tokyo window (00:00–08:00 UTC) at 62%; the lowest is USD/CAD at 41%. Shares can mislead, though: in absolute terms GBP/JPY covers the most ground in those hours at 81.1 pips, ahead of AUD/JPY's 56.5.
Do more volatile pairs make more money?
Range on its own is neither an advantage nor a drawback — at the same position size it scales gains and losses by the same factor. GBP/JPY moves about 2.4× NZD/USD, so matching the cash at risk between them means trading roughly 41% of the size, at which point the difference is gone. What range decides is position sizing, not profitability.
Which pair should a beginner start with?
That depends on the hours you can trade and the swings you can sit through, so there is no general answer. Two things the data does say: GBP/JPY moves about 2.4× NZD/USD, so the same position size produces that much more movement in an account; and on pairs like USD/JPY, where the mean sits 1.21× the median, a handful of outsized days carry the average and ordinary days fall short of it.
Can pip figures be compared across pairs?
Not directly. A yen pair (USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY) has a pip of 0.01; everything else uses 0.0001 — two orders of magnitude apart. The same 100 pips is a different fraction of price, and a different cash amount at the same position size.
How these numbers were produced
Hourly candles over 2016–2025, 2,595 trading days per pair (2016-01-04 to 2025-12-31, days bounded in UTC). Weekends are excluded, as are days with fewer than 18 hourly candles — holidays, half sessions and the hours around the weekly open. Price data comes from Dukascopy Bank SA — historical data feed. Formiq does not originate these prices; it aggregates that feed and publishes the result. The same data drives the Formiq chart, so any figure above can be checked by opening the date and hour it refers to. Last regenerated 2026-07-26.