GBP/JPY volatility: average range by hour and session
British Pound / Japanese Yen (Guppy) · 2016–2025 · 2,595 trading days
GBP/JPY moves 153.9 pips in an average day. The busiest hour is 14:00 UTC at 42.9 pips, followed by 08:00 UTC at 40.7. London is the busiest session, covering 77% of the daily range on its own.
What sets GBP/JPY apart
The widest of the pairs here. Its 153.9 pip average is 1.53× USD/JPY and 2.42× NZD/USD, the quietest here. At the same position size, the swings in an account scale by the same factor.
It has two peaks in the day. The busiest hour is 14:00 UTC at 42.9 pips, but second place goes to 08:00 UTC at 40.7, early in the London morning; no other pair here has that hour second. Every other pair here except AUD/JPY (01:00 UTC) has 13:00 UTC in second place. The split is visible in the hourly table above.
Its widest day, June 24, 2016, ran to 2,093.2 pips — 13.6× the average, against 13.2× for GBP/USD behind it. The pair's reputation rests on that number rather than on the mean.
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 | 31.3 | 2,595 | |
| 01:00 | 29.2 | 2,595 | |
| 02:00 | 23.7 | 2,595 | |
| 03:00 | 21.2 | 2,595 | |
| 04:00 | 20.3 | 2,595 | |
| 05:00 | 22.4 | 2,595 | |
| 06:00 | 30.9 | 2,595 | |
| 07:00 | 39.5 | 2,595 | |
| 08:00 | 40.7 | 2,595 | |
| 09:00 | 35.8 | 2,595 | |
| 10:00 | 32.4 | 2,595 | |
| 11:00 | 33.3 | 2,595 | |
| 12:00 | 37.8 | 2,595 | |
| 13:00 | 39.9 | 2,595 | |
| 14:00 | 42.9 | 2,595 | |
| 15:00 | 38.5 | 2,595 | |
| 16:00 | 29.9 | 2,595 | |
| 17:00 | 25.6 | 2,595 | |
| 18:00 | 23.4 | 2,595 | |
| 19:00 | 21.3 | 2,595 | |
| 20:00 | 19.3 | 2,595 | |
| 21:00 | 19.9 | 2,255 | |
| 22:00 | 20.0 | 2,071 | |
| 23:00 | 22.2 | 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 | 81.1 | |
| London | 07:00–16:00 | 117.9 | |
| New York | 12:00–21:00 | 98.1 |
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 | 140.3 | 518 | |
| Tuesday | 156.0 | 520 | |
| Wednesday | 152.0 | 518 | |
| Thursday | 165.4 | 520 | |
| Friday | 155.5 | 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 | +0.21% | 5/10 | 158.7 | |
| Feb | -0.92% | 4/10 | 151.9 | |
| Mar | +0.8% | 6/10 | 170.2 | |
| Apr | +0.9% | 7/10 | 153.1 | |
| May | -0.2% | 5/10 | 142.0 | |
| Jun | 0% | 8/10 | 165.6 | |
| Jul | -0.95% | 3/10 | 156.4 | |
| Aug | -0.47% | 3/10 | 139.3 | |
| Sep | +0.31% | 6/10 | 157.1 | |
| Oct | +1.39% | 7/10 | 159.9 | |
| Nov | +1.19% | 7/10 | 143.2 | |
| Dec | +0.1% | 6/10 | 149.5 |
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 | 225.2 | 260 | |
| 2017 | 135.5 | 259 | |
| 2018 | 133.1 | 259 | |
| 2019 | 126.2 | 259 | |
| 2020 | 138.5 | 260 | |
| 2021 | 104.0 | 260 | |
| 2022 | 186.6 | 260 | |
| 2023 | 160.3 | 259 | |
| 2024 | 175.8 | 260 | |
| 2025 | 153.3 | 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 | |
|---|---|---|
| 2,093.2 pips | Open the chart | |
| 1,279.3 pips | Open the chart | |
| 951.5 pips | Open the chart |
Frequently asked questions
What time of day does GBP/JPY move the most?
14:00 UTC, which averages 42.9 pips of range — about 2.2× the quietest hour at 20:00 UTC (19.3 pips). Measured across 2,595 trading days, 2016–2025.
What is the average daily range of GBP/JPY?
153.9 pips, with a median of 131.4 pips. The mean sits above the median because a handful of outsized days pull it up; the widest single day in the window was June 24, 2016 at 2,093.2 pips.
Is GBP/JPY more volatile in the Tokyo or the London session?
London. Tokyo averages 81.1 pips of range against London's 117.9 pips.
Which weekday does GBP/JPY move the most?
Thursday, averaging 165.4 pips. The quietest is Monday at 140.3 pips. Direction is a different question: no weekday closes higher often enough to separate it from a coin flip.
Does GBP/JPY show seasonality?
Across 2016–2025, October was the strongest calendar month at +1.39% on average, closing higher in 7 of 10 years. July was the weakest at -0.95%. With only 10 observations per month this is a tendency, not a tradable edge.