AUD/USD volatility: average range by hour and session
Australian Dollar / US Dollar (Aussie) · 2016–2025 · 2,595 trading days
AUD/USD moves 66.5 pips in an average day. The busiest hour is 14:00 UTC at 19.3 pips, followed by 13:00 UTC at 17.9. London is the busiest session, covering 71% of the daily range on its own.
What sets AUD/USD apart
A quiet pair at 66.5 pips a day — 66% of USD/JPY's 100.5, and under half of GBP/JPY's 153.9. Narrow ranges are not a drawback in themselves; at the same position size they simply mean smaller swings.
Its distinguishing feature is how much of the day happens in Asia: the Tokyo session accounts for 58.0% of the daily range, second only to AUD/JPY at 62.4%. 01:00 UTC ranks fourth at 16.5 pips, which is Australian and Asian data hitting the tape.
Even so, the busiest hour is 14:00 UTC: the Aussie's largest peak is still in US hours. The idea that a commodity currency moves in Asian hours is only half right.
When it moves — average range by hourUTC
How far price travels in an average hour, measured high-to-low on hourly candles across every trading day in the window. Hours are UTC all year; UTC has no daylight saving, so they do not shift in summer.
| Hour (UTC) | Avg range | Candles | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 14.3 | 2,595 | |
| 01:00 | 16.5 | 2,595 | |
| 02:00 | 12.8 | 2,595 | |
| 03:00 | 11.0 | 2,595 | |
| 04:00 | 10.0 | 2,595 | |
| 05:00 | 10.8 | 2,595 | |
| 06:00 | 13.3 | 2,595 | |
| 07:00 | 15.1 | 2,595 | |
| 08:00 | 14.6 | 2,595 | |
| 09:00 | 12.6 | 2,595 | |
| 10:00 | 11.3 | 2,595 | |
| 11:00 | 11.7 | 2,595 | |
| 12:00 | 16.2 | 2,595 | |
| 13:00 | 17.9 | 2,595 | |
| 14:00 | 19.3 | 2,595 | |
| 15:00 | 17.1 | 2,595 | |
| 16:00 | 12.7 | 2,595 | |
| 17:00 | 10.9 | 2,595 | |
| 18:00 | 11.4 | 2,595 | |
| 19:00 | 9.9 | 2,595 | |
| 20:00 | 7.9 | 2,595 | |
| 21:00 | 8.0 | 2,255 | |
| 22:00 | 8.0 | 2,071 | |
| 23:00 | 8.9 | 2,071 |
Tokyo, London or New York — where the range happens
High-to-low across each session window on the same day. The London and New York windows are left overlapping rather than cut apart, because the hours they share are the busiest of the day and splitting them would hide that. Windows are fixed in UTC, so under daylight saving they sit an hour off the local clock.
| Session | Window (UTC) | Avg range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 00:00–08:00 | 38.6 | |
| London | 07:00–16:00 | 47.2 | |
| New York | 12:00–21:00 | 44.7 |
Which weekday moves most
Range only. How often each weekday closed higher is not shown, because for every pair here it cannot be told apart from a coin flip: of the 50 pair-and-weekday combinations, 3 stand out, and about 2.5 would be expected to by chance alone.
| Weekday | Avg range | Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 57.6 | 518 | |
| Tuesday | 66.8 | 520 | |
| Wednesday | 72.4 | 518 | |
| Thursday | 69.5 | 520 | |
| Friday | 66.4 | 519 |
Is there seasonality? Month by month
Average change from the first open to the last close of each calendar month, and how often that month closed higher.
| Month | Avg change | Closed highern = 10 | Avg range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | +0.05% | 5/10 | 70.4 | |
| Feb | -0.75% | 5/10 | 69.1 | |
| Mar | +0.14% | 4/10 | 77.6 | |
| Apr | -0.28% | 3/10 | 72.7 | |
| May | -0.08% | 6/10 | 65.6 | |
| Jun | +0.69% | 7/10 | 68.3 | |
| Jul | +0.35% | 6/10 | 64.7 | |
| Aug | -0.38% | 3/10 | 63.1 | |
| Sep | -0.65% | 5/10 | 63.5 | |
| Oct | -0.81% | 2/10 | 60.7 | |
| Nov | +0.65% | 5/10 | 64.7 | |
| Dec | +0.69% | 7/10 | 57.8 |
Ten years means ten observations per month. That is enough to describe what happened and not enough to predict what will: across all 120 month-and-pair combinations published here, not one is lopsided enough to rule out chance.
How much the range changes year to year
A ten-year average hides how much conditions changed within those ten years. Set your position size or stop from the average at the top of this page without checking which of these years today's market resembles, and a stop that should have had room to spare may not.
| Year | Avg range | Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 84.1 | 260 | |
| 2017 | 58.5 | 259 | |
| 2018 | 61.9 | 259 | |
| 2019 | 47.1 | 259 | |
| 2020 | 79.9 | 260 | |
| 2021 | 65.2 | 260 | |
| 2022 | 87.8 | 260 | |
| 2023 | 69.5 | 259 | |
| 2024 | 54.5 | 260 | |
| 2025 | 56.6 | 259 |
The three widest days in the window
Named rather than merely counted, so the figure can be checked. Each is a real session: open the pair on the chart, scroll to the date, and the high-to-low should match.
| Date (UTC) | Range that day | |
|---|---|---|
| 456.3 pips | Open the chart | |
| 375.6 pips | Open the chart | |
| 345.2 pips | Open the chart |
Frequently asked questions
What time of day does AUD/USD move the most?
14:00 UTC, which averages 19.3 pips of range — about 2.4× the quietest hour at 20:00 UTC (7.9 pips). Measured across 2,595 trading days, 2016–2025.
What is the average daily range of AUD/USD?
66.5 pips, with a median of 59.4 pips. The mean sits above the median because a handful of outsized days pull it up; the widest single day in the window was March 19, 2020 at 456.3 pips.
Is AUD/USD more volatile in the Tokyo or the London session?
London. Tokyo averages 38.6 pips of range against London's 47.2 pips.
Which weekday does AUD/USD move the most?
Wednesday, averaging 72.4 pips. The quietest is Monday at 57.6 pips. Direction is a different question: no weekday closes higher often enough to separate it from a coin flip.
Does AUD/USD show seasonality?
Across 2016–2025, June was the strongest calendar month at +0.69% on average, closing higher in 7 of 10 years. October was the weakest at -0.81%. With only 10 observations per month this is a tendency, not a tradable edge.