GBP/USD volatility: average range by hour and session
British Pound / US Dollar (Cable) · 2016–2025 · 2,595 trading days
GBP/USD moves 108.1 pips in an average day. The busiest hour is 14:00 UTC at 32.5 pips, followed by 13:00 UTC at 31.0. London is the busiest session, covering 82% of the daily range on its own.
What sets GBP/USD apart
A wide pair, and the one whose range has come down furthest. Its most volatile year was 2016, the first in the window, at 149.1 pips; the quietest was 2024 at 78.2, and 2025 came in at 91.2. That leaves the latest year at 61% of the first, the largest fall here, with USD/CAD next at 62%. GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY, USD/CAD and NZD/USD also had their most volatile year in 2016; none has come down as far since.
Its widest day, June 24, 2016, reached 1,423.0 pips — 13.2× the average, and the day the EU referendum result was counted. Only GBP/JPY has produced a larger single day. Days like that are rare, but when they come they are of a different order — a shape both sterling pairs share.
London carries 81.9% of the daily range against Tokyo's 43.7%, which follows from UK data and Bank of England decisions all landing in European hours.
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 | 15.0 | 2,595 | |
| 01:00 | 15.1 | 2,595 | |
| 02:00 | 12.7 | 2,595 | |
| 03:00 | 10.7 | 2,595 | |
| 04:00 | 10.4 | 2,595 | |
| 05:00 | 12.8 | 2,595 | |
| 06:00 | 20.7 | 2,595 | |
| 07:00 | 27.4 | 2,595 | |
| 08:00 | 28.7 | 2,595 | |
| 09:00 | 26.0 | 2,595 | |
| 10:00 | 24.3 | 2,595 | |
| 11:00 | 25.3 | 2,595 | |
| 12:00 | 29.7 | 2,595 | |
| 13:00 | 31.0 | 2,595 | |
| 14:00 | 32.5 | 2,595 | |
| 15:00 | 29.7 | 2,595 | |
| 16:00 | 22.8 | 2,595 | |
| 17:00 | 19.2 | 2,595 | |
| 18:00 | 18.3 | 2,595 | |
| 19:00 | 15.3 | 2,595 | |
| 20:00 | 12.6 | 2,595 | |
| 21:00 | 11.9 | 2,255 | |
| 22:00 | 10.6 | 2,071 | |
| 23:00 | 10.8 | 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 | 47.2 | |
| London | 07:00–16:00 | 88.5 | |
| New York | 12:00–21:00 | 75.8 |
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 | 96.3 | 518 | |
| Tuesday | 109.8 | 520 | |
| Wednesday | 108.6 | 518 | |
| Thursday | 115.9 | 520 | |
| Friday | 109.7 | 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 | +0.61% | 5/10 | 112.8 | |
| Feb | -0.74% | 3/10 | 108.2 | |
| Mar | +0.32% | 5/10 | 121.5 | |
| Apr | +0.47% | 7/10 | 100.8 | |
| May | -0.43% | 4/10 | 95.7 | |
| Jun | -0.98% | 5/10 | 117.8 | |
| Jul | +0.09% | 6/10 | 103.7 | |
| Aug | -0.43% | 4/10 | 94.3 | |
| Sep | -0.72% | 4/10 | 113.0 | |
| Oct | -0.42% | 4/10 | 115.6 | |
| Nov | +1.3% | 6/10 | 107.1 | |
| Dec | +0.67% | 7/10 | 106.6 |
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 | 149.1 | 260 | |
| 2017 | 101.4 | 259 | |
| 2018 | 108.4 | 259 | |
| 2019 | 101.0 | 259 | |
| 2020 | 128.8 | 260 | |
| 2021 | 90.2 | 260 | |
| 2022 | 132.9 | 260 | |
| 2023 | 99.5 | 259 | |
| 2024 | 78.2 | 260 | |
| 2025 | 91.2 | 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 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1,423.0 pips | Open the chart | |
| 820.1 pips | Open the chart | |
| 729.4 pips | Open the chart |
Frequently asked questions
What time of day does GBP/USD move the most?
14:00 UTC, which averages 32.5 pips of range — about 3.1× the quietest hour at 04:00 UTC (10.4 pips). Measured across 2,595 trading days, 2016–2025.
What is the average daily range of GBP/USD?
108.1 pips, with a median of 94.7 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 1,423.0 pips.
Is GBP/USD more volatile in the Tokyo or the London session?
London. Tokyo averages 47.2 pips of range against London's 88.5 pips.
Which weekday does GBP/USD move the most?
Thursday, averaging 115.9 pips. The quietest is Monday at 96.3 pips. Direction is a different question: no weekday closes higher often enough to separate it from a coin flip.
Does GBP/USD show seasonality?
Across 2016–2025, November was the strongest calendar month at +1.3% on average, closing higher in 6 of 10 years. June was the weakest at -0.98%. With only 10 observations per month this is a tendency, not a tradable edge.