USD/JPY volatility: average range by hour and session
US Dollar / Japanese Yen (dollar-yen) · 2016–2025 · 2,595 trading days
USD/JPY moves 100.5 pips in an average day. The busiest hour is 14:00 UTC at 27.8 pips, followed by 13:00 UTC at 27.3. London is the busiest session, covering 71% of the daily range on its own.
What is distinctive about USD/JPY
At 100.5 pips a day USD/JPY is not especially wide — about two-thirds of GBP/JPY's 153.9. What sets it apart is how much that width changes. The yearly average ran from 57.5 pips in 2019 to 138.4 pips in 2024, a 2.41× swing; the next most changeable pair, GBP/JPY, managed 2.17×. 2025 came in at 133.4 pips.
The mean of 100.5 pips sits 1.21× above the median of 83.3 — a wider gap than GBP/JPY at 1.17×. A handful of days carry the average. The three largest were 2022-12-20 (690.8 pips), 2016-06-24 (671.2 pips), 2022-11-10 (638.4 pips). Half of all days finish inside 83.3 pips.
The three busiest hours cluster in the London–New York overlap, as they do for every dollar pair. The distinguishing feature is 00:00 UTC ranking 4. That hour contains the Tokyo fixing at 09:55 JST, and it is the only peak forming before Europe arrives — only USD/JPY and AUD/JPY have one.
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.
| Hour | Avg range | Hours | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 24.4 | 2,595 | |
| 01:00 | 21.9 | 2,595 | |
| 02:00 | 17.3 | 2,595 | |
| 03:00 | 15.4 | 2,595 | |
| 04:00 | 14.7 | 2,595 | |
| 05:00 | 15.4 | 2,595 | |
| 06:00 | 19.2 | 2,595 | |
| 07:00 | 22.2 | 2,595 | |
| 08:00 | 20.9 | 2,595 | |
| 09:00 | 17.8 | 2,595 | |
| 10:00 | 15.8 | 2,595 | |
| 11:00 | 16.5 | 2,595 | |
| 12:00 | 25.3 | 2,595 | |
| 13:00 | 27.3 | 2,595 | |
| 14:00 | 27.8 | 2,595 | |
| 15:00 | 24.0 | 2,595 | |
| 16:00 | 18.2 | 2,595 | |
| 17:00 | 16.1 | 2,595 | |
| 18:00 | 16.2 | 2,595 | |
| 19:00 | 14.2 | 2,595 | |
| 20:00 | 12.1 | 2,595 | |
| 21:00 | 10.7 | 2,255 | |
| 22:00 | 12.2 | 2,070 | |
| 23:00 | 15.4 | 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 | Avg range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 00:00–08:00 | 56.1 | |
| London | 07:00–16:00 | 71.5 | |
| New York | 12:00–21:00 | 67.3 |
Which weekday moves most
Range only. Whether a given weekday closes higher is not shown, because for every pair published here it stays within sampling noise of a coin flip — 3 of the 50 pair-and-weekday combinations clear the usual significance bar, and 2.5 would clear it by chance alone.
| Weekday | Avg range | Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 88.4 | 518 | |
| Tuesday | 97.9 | 520 | |
| Wednesday | 106.4 | 518 | |
| Thursday | 105.6 | 520 | |
| Friday | 104.0 | 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 | -0.37% | 3/10 | 105.3 | |
| Feb | -0.19% | 5/10 | 97.4 | |
| Mar | +0.51% | 4/10 | 109.2 | |
| Apr | +0.49% | 6/10 | 100.8 | |
| May | +0.24% | 5/10 | 94.7 | |
| Jun | +0.94% | 8/10 | 98.4 | |
| Jul | -0.99% | 3/10 | 105.6 | |
| Aug | 0% | 5/10 | 105.7 | |
| Sep | +1.04% | 7/10 | 97.0 | |
| Oct | +1.85% | 7/10 | 88.0 | |
| Nov | -0.07% | 4/10 | 104.3 | |
| Dec | -0.56% | 5/10 | 98.1 |
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
The ten-year average hides how much the market changed inside it. Sizing a position off the number at the top of this page, without checking which of these years it resembles, is how a stop that looks generous turns out not to be.
| Year | Avg range | Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 120.9 | 260 | |
| 2017 | 89.1 | 259 | |
| 2018 | 70.4 | 259 | |
| 2019 | 57.5 | 259 | |
| 2020 | 71.4 | 260 | |
| 2021 | 57.5 | 260 | |
| 2022 | 136.2 | 260 | |
| 2023 | 129.8 | 259 | |
| 2024 | 138.4 | 260 | |
| 2025 | 133.4 | 259 |
The three largest 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 | Range that day | |
|---|---|---|
| 690.8 pips | Open the chart | |
| 671.2 pips | Open the chart | |
| 638.4 pips | Open the chart |
Frequently asked
What time of day does USD/JPY move the most?
14:00 UTC, which averages 27.8 pips of range — about 2.6× the quietest hour at 21:00 UTC (10.7 pips). Measured across 2,595 trading days, 2016–2025.
What is the average daily range of USD/JPY?
100.5 pips, with a median of 83.3 pips. The mean sits above the median because a handful of outsized days pull it up; the widest single day in the window was 2022-12-20 at 690.8 pips.
Is USD/JPY more volatile in the Tokyo or the London session?
London. Tokyo averages 56.1 pips of range against London's 71.5 pips.
Which weekday does USD/JPY move the most?
Wednesday, averaging 106.4 pips. The quietest is Monday at 88.4 pips. Direction is a different question: no weekday closes higher often enough to separate it from a coin flip.
Does USD/JPY show seasonality?
Across 2016–2025, October was the strongest calendar month at +1.85% on average, closing higher in 7 of 10 years. July was the weakest at -0.99%. With only 10 observations per month this is a tendency, not a tradable edge.
How these numbers were produced
Built from the Dukascopy public historical feed (ticks → M1 → H1) over 2016-01-04 to 2025-12-31. One pip is 0.01. Weekends are excluded, as are days with fewer than 18 hourly candles — holidays, half sessions and the few hours around the weekly open. Days are bounded in UTC. Last regenerated 2026-07-26.
Source
Price data: Dukascopy Bank SA — historical data feed. Formiq does not originate these prices; it aggregates hourly candles from that feed and publishes the result. The same data drives the Formiq chart, so any figure in the tables above can be checked by opening the date and hour it refers to.