Quick Answer: The widest measured hour for USD/JPY is 13:00 UTC (13:00 GMT or 14:00 BST in London, 08:00 EST or 09:00 EDT in New York). It averaged 27.6 pips (27% of the day’s range), against 11.6 pips at the quietest hour, 21:00 UTC, a 2.38x spread. London is the widest session. Measured from Dukascopy hourly bid candles, last 250 qualifying sessions, as of September 30, 2026. Widest means the widest measured range, not the most profitable, and most retail traders lose money.
| UTC hour | London (winter / summer) | New York (winter / summer) | Tokyo (JST) | Mean pips | Median pips | Share of the day's range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 00:00 / 01:00 | 19:00 -1d / 20:00 -1d | 09:00 | 25.6 | 22.5 | 25% |
| 01:00 | 01:00 / 02:00 | 20:00 -1d / 21:00 -1d | 10:00 | 21.8 | 18.6 | 21% |
| 02:00 | 02:00 / 03:00 | 21:00 -1d / 22:00 -1d | 11:00 | 17.4 | 15.1 | 17% |
| 03:00 | 03:00 / 04:00 | 22:00 -1d / 23:00 -1d | 12:00 | 15.7 | 12.7 | 15% |
| 04:00 | 04:00 / 05:00 | 23:00 -1d / 00:00 | 13:00 | 16.7 | 13.6 | 16% |
| 05:00 | 05:00 / 06:00 | 00:00 / 01:00 | 14:00 | 16.8 | 14.9 | 16% |
| 06:00 | 06:00 / 07:00 | 01:00 / 02:00 | 15:00 | 21.4 | 17.6 | 21% |
| 07:00 | 07:00 / 08:00 | 02:00 / 03:00 | 16:00 | 23.8 | 19.8 | 23% |
| 08:00 | 08:00 / 09:00 | 03:00 / 04:00 | 17:00 | 23.7 | 19.8 | 23% |
| 09:00 | 09:00 / 10:00 | 04:00 / 05:00 | 18:00 | 20.1 | 15.9 | 19% |
| 10:00 | 10:00 / 11:00 | 05:00 / 06:00 | 19:00 | 16.9 | 13.9 | 16% |
| 11:00 | 11:00 / 12:00 | 06:00 / 07:00 | 20:00 | 17.3 | 14.3 | 17% |
| 12:00 | 12:00 / 13:00 | 07:00 / 08:00 | 21:00 | 24.0 | 19.1 | 23% |
| 13:00 (widest) | 13:00 / 14:00 | 08:00 / 09:00 | 22:00 | 27.6 | 22.3 | 27% |
| 14:00 | 14:00 / 15:00 | 09:00 / 10:00 | 23:00 | 25.6 | 23.0 | 25% |
| 15:00 | 15:00 / 16:00 | 10:00 / 11:00 | 00:00 +1d | 24.3 | 22.2 | 23% |
| 16:00 | 16:00 / 17:00 | 11:00 / 12:00 | 01:00 +1d | 18.4 | 16.7 | 18% |
| 17:00 | 17:00 / 18:00 | 12:00 / 13:00 | 02:00 +1d | 16.9 | 13.3 | 16% |
| 18:00 | 18:00 / 19:00 | 13:00 / 14:00 | 03:00 +1d | 16.8 | 12.9 | 16% |
| 19:00 | 19:00 / 20:00 | 14:00 / 15:00 | 04:00 +1d | 15.6 | 11.5 | 15% |
| 20:00 | 20:00 / 21:00 | 15:00 / 16:00 | 05:00 +1d | 13.3 | 10.2 | 13% |
| 21:00 (quietest) | 21:00 / 22:00 | 16:00 / 17:00 | 06:00 +1d | 11.6 | 10.5 | 11% |
| 22:00 | 22:00 / 23:00 | 17:00 / 18:00 | 07:00 +1d | 12.5 | 10.2 | 12% |
| 23:00 | 23:00 / 00:00 +1d | 18:00 / 19:00 | 08:00 +1d | 15.0 | 11.5 | 14% |
| Session | UTC window (Apr–Sep / Oct–Mar) | Mean pips | Share of the day's range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 00:00-08:59 | 66.6 | 68% |
| London (widest) | 07:00-15:59 / 08:00-16:59 | 71.2 | 71% |
| New York (quietest) | 12:00-20:59 / 13:00-21:59 | 63.8 | 65% |
| London/NY overlap | 12:00-15:59 / 13:00-16:59 | 52.4 | 54% |
As of September 30, 2026. Source: Dukascopy hourly bid candles. Mean and median of each UTC hourly bar's high-low range in pips (pip size 0.01 for USD/JPY). Sessions overlap in time, so their ranges do not add up to the full day. The 21:00 and 22:00 UTC hours contain the daily New York rollover, when spreads typically widen and bid candles register that widening as range. Widest and quietest mean measured range, not profitability. Past ranges are not a forecast of the next session.
Reading the hourly shape for USD/JPY
USD/JPY peaks inside the London/New York overlap, the hours when both centres are open (12:00-15:59 UTC in April-September, 13:00-16:59 in October-March). Its widest hour, 13:00 UTC, is shared by 2 of the 28 pairs in our table, so it sits a little apart from the crowd even within the overlap. The widest hour averaged 27.6 pips, 27% of the day’s range in a single hour; the next widest were 00:00 UTC (25.6 pips) and 14:00 UTC (25.6 pips). The widest hour runs 2.38x the quietest (21:00 UTC, 11.6 pips), a gentler gradient than the steepest pairs in the table, so for USD/JPY the hour on its own separates busy from quiet less sharply. The quietest hour, 21:00 UTC, sits inside the rollover window, where liquidity is thin and spreads typically widen; a low range there is no invitation to trade it.
Hours in the table are UTC bar opens: the 13:00 row is the bar from 13:00 to 13:59. The London and New York columns apply a fixed offset, so in the weeks around the clock changes in March, April, October and November the real local time of a bar can differ by an hour from the column you are reading. The sessions guide lays out which weeks the UK/EU and US calendars diverge.
Which session is widest for USD/JPY
London is the widest session for USD/JPY: a mean high-low of 71.2 pips inside its own window, about 71% of the full day’s range. The quietest window was New York at 63.8 pips (65% of the day). The four-hour London/New York overlap carried 52.4 pips on its own, 54% of the day’s range. The widest hour and the widest window agree on the same part of the day: the busiest single hour is inside the overlap, and London, the window it belongs to, is also the widest. For scale, USD/JPY’s average daily range over the last 250 sessions was 103.7 pips (as of September 30, 2026); the hourly figures above are slices of that day. The day-of-week split is on the pair’s average daily range page, and the 28-pair weekday table shows how USD/JPY compares.
Setting an EA time filter for USD/JPY
Most MT4 and MT5 brokers do not run the platform clock on UTC. A common setup is GMT+2 in winter and GMT+3 in summer, so a UTC reading has to be translated before it goes into an EA input. The widest hour, 13:00 UTC, is 15:00 on a GMT+2 server clock and 16:00 on GMT+3. The quietest hour, 21:00 UTC, is 23:00 on a GMT+2 server clock and 00:00 on GMT+3. Confirm your own broker’s stated offset instead of assuming it, and check whether the EA’s inputs expect server time or GMT, because a GMT figure typed into a server-time field trades two or three hours off target.
Split by UTC calendar month, the widest hour was 12:00 UTC in April-September (25.6 pips) and 13:00 UTC in October-March (30.3 pips). A fixed UTC hour is a different point in the London or New York day depending on the season, and each half-year is only about 120 to 130 bars per hour, so read the two as a range rather than a rule.
Whether a filter should include the widest hours or skip them depends on the strategy: breakout and momentum rules want the range, while grid and mean-reversion rules often prefer calmer windows. Neither choice is a claim about profit; the table only says where USD/JPY has moved most and least. The sessions guide covers how to set and recheck the window, and you can open a free XM account to test the time filter on a demo first, since demo results are not live results.
How this is measured
Each figure is the mean or median of (bar high minus bar low) divided by the pip size, for every Dukascopy hourly bid bar of USD/JPY that falls on one of its last 250 qualifying sessions (a weekday with at least 12 hourly bars and a non-zero daily range), covering October 14, 2025 to September 30, 2026. Session figures use the high-low of each session’s own UTC window, and the share of the day is the mean of the session range divided by that day’s full range. The full definition is in the method section of the hourly range table. Past ranges describe what has already happened and are not a forecast of the next session.
Related
- USD/JPY average daily range in pips: the daily range these hours sit inside
- Forex volatility by hour: the 28-pair by 24-hour table
- Forex trading sessions explained: session times, daylight saving and broker server time
- Forex session volatility table: Tokyo, London and New York ranges for all 28 pairs
- Most volatile day of the week in forex: the weekday table
All 28 pairs
- Best time to trade AUD/CAD
- Best time to trade AUD/CHF
- Best time to trade AUD/JPY
- Best time to trade AUD/NZD
- Best time to trade AUD/USD
- Best time to trade CAD/CHF
- Best time to trade CAD/JPY
- Best time to trade CHF/JPY
- Best time to trade EUR/AUD
- Best time to trade EUR/CAD
- Best time to trade EUR/CHF
- Best time to trade EUR/GBP
- Best time to trade EUR/JPY
- Best time to trade EUR/NZD
- Best time to trade EUR/USD
- Best time to trade GBP/AUD
- Best time to trade GBP/CAD
- Best time to trade GBP/CHF
- Best time to trade GBP/JPY
- Best time to trade GBP/NZD
- Best time to trade GBP/USD
- Best time to trade NZD/CAD
- Best time to trade NZD/CHF
- Best time to trade NZD/JPY
- Best time to trade NZD/USD
- Best time to trade USD/CAD
- Best time to trade USD/CHF
- USD/JPY (this page)