Quick Answer: We measured the full-day (00:00-23:59 UTC) high-to-low range of 28 forex pairs on each day of the week, over each pair’s last 250 qualifying sessions of Dukascopy hourly bid candles (mid-October 2025 to September 30, 2026). Thursday is the busiest day for 12 pairs and Wednesday for 10; Monday is the calmest for 13 pairs and Friday for 10. Averaged across the 28 pairs, Thursday runs about 7% above a pair’s all-days mean and Monday about 6% below it. The spread between a pair’s busiest and calmest day runs from 1.08x on EUR/USD (62.5 pips on Wednesday against 57.8 on Friday) to 1.52x on AUD/NZD (68.1 on Wednesday against 44.7 on Friday). A busier day is a longer measured move, not a better day to trade.
| Pair | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Busiest | Calmest | Busiest ÷ calmest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GBP/JPY | 132.8 | 125.0 | 132.6 | 147.6 | 136.6 | Thu | Tue | 1.18x |
| GBP/NZD | 115.5 | 138.9 | 151.8 | 146.3 | 116.6 | Wed | Mon | 1.31x |
| CHF/JPY | 126.8 | 120.3 | 123.3 | 135.7 | 132.1 | Thu | Tue | 1.13x |
| GBP/AUD | 91.1 | 129.7 | 124.0 | 126.7 | 100.4 | Tue | Mon | 1.42x |
| EUR/NZD | 101.6 | 117.9 | 127.1 | 120.6 | 104.4 | Wed | Mon | 1.25x |
| EUR/JPY | 102.6 | 97.9 | 96.7 | 113.7 | 116.1 | Fri | Wed | 1.20x |
| USD/JPY | 96.5 | 93.8 | 102.0 | 120.6 | 106.7 | Thu | Tue | 1.29x |
| EUR/AUD | 86.9 | 107.1 | 102.5 | 106.1 | 88.9 | Tue | Mon | 1.23x |
| GBP/CAD | 86.5 | 93.6 | 100.1 | 99.4 | 90.9 | Wed | Mon | 1.16x |
| AUD/JPY | 81.7 | 97.3 | 85.5 | 101.7 | 90.9 | Thu | Mon | 1.24x |
| GBP/USD | 75.5 | 77.7 | 85.1 | 87.6 | 76.7 | Thu | Mon | 1.16x |
| NZD/JPY | 73.4 | 77.5 | 76.1 | 83.1 | 73.9 | Thu | Mon | 1.13x |
| CAD/JPY | 70.4 | 67.7 | 68.7 | 86.3 | 84.1 | Thu | Tue | 1.27x |
| EUR/CAD | 64.8 | 70.0 | 67.1 | 68.8 | 73.1 | Fri | Mon | 1.13x |
| EUR/USD | 58.6 | 60.9 | 62.5 | 62.0 | 57.8 | Wed | Fri | 1.08x |
| AUD/CAD | 52.6 | 64.0 | 60.6 | 61.9 | 55.8 | Tue | Mon | 1.22x |
| USD/CAD | 54.8 | 55.8 | 59.0 | 57.0 | 62.1 | Fri | Mon | 1.13x |
| AUD/NZD | 49.5 | 61.3 | 68.1 | 55.4 | 44.7 | Wed | Fri | 1.52x |
| GBP/CHF | 54.1 | 54.8 | 56.2 | 57.2 | 47.9 | Thu | Fri | 1.19x |
| AUD/USD | 48.0 | 58.0 | 54.6 | 58.6 | 51.1 | Thu | Mon | 1.22x |
| NZD/CAD | 51.9 | 53.2 | 58.2 | 57.0 | 49.9 | Wed | Fri | 1.17x |
| USD/CHF | 50.8 | 52.2 | 55.6 | 58.3 | 50.2 | Thu | Fri | 1.16x |
| NZD/USD | 45.9 | 49.6 | 53.3 | 51.6 | 43.8 | Wed | Fri | 1.22x |
| AUD/CHF | 36.3 | 43.1 | 44.3 | 43.0 | 36.4 | Wed | Mon | 1.22x |
| NZD/CHF | 35.2 | 34.6 | 39.2 | 37.1 | 29.1 | Wed | Fri | 1.35x |
| EUR/CHF | 34.0 | 34.6 | 34.6 | 35.3 | 32.6 | Thu | Fri | 1.08x |
| CAD/CHF | 33.4 | 33.1 | 35.8 | 37.9 | 31.1 | Thu | Fri | 1.22x |
| EUR/GBP | 29.7 | 29.9 | 31.5 | 29.0 | 27.9 | Wed | Fri | 1.13x |
As of September 30, 2026. Source: Dukascopy hourly bid candles. Figures in pips over each pair's last 250 qualifying sessions. Each cell is the mean full-day (00:00–23:59 UTC) high-low range on that weekday; hover a cell for the median and the number of sessions behind it. Past ranges describe what has already happened and are not a forecast of the next session.
Sizing a grid step by the day? Our free GridMaster EA takes its spacing in pips (
GridSizePips) and a Friday close option (CloseOnFriday); the Monday and Friday columns above are the measured case for both inputs. Download all 7 free MT4 & MT5 EAs →
How This Table Is Computed
The figures come from the same Dukascopy hourly bid candle cache behind the average daily range table, the hourly volatility table and the session volatility table, with the same day filter: a UTC calendar day counts only if it is a weekday carrying at least 12 hourly bars and a non-zero high-low range. That drops weekends, the Sunday-evening opening hours and near-closed holidays. Each pair’s last 250 qualifying days are grouped by weekday - 48 to 51 days per weekday per pair - and the cell shows the mean of the full-day range in pips (0.01 on JPY-quoted pairs, 0.0001 elsewhere). Hovering a cell shows the median and the day count behind it.
Because the day boundary is UTC midnight, “Monday” here is Monday 00:00-23:59 UTC. The Sunday 21:00-24:00 UTC opening hours are not part of it; they fall on a day that fails the 12-bar filter and are excluded. A broker whose server day rolls at 5 p.m. New York will slice the same candles into slightly different days.
Nothing is forecast and nothing is estimated: a pair with incomplete history for the window is omitted and named under the table rather than averaged on partial data.
Thursday and Wednesday Lead, Monday and Friday Trail
The pattern is the same shape on almost every row. Relative to each pair’s own all-days mean, the 28-pair average runs Monday 0.94, Tuesday 1.01, Wednesday 1.04, Thursday 1.07, Friday 0.95 - a hump through the middle of the week with both ends below average. Thursday is the busiest day for 12 pairs, Wednesday for 10; the three Tuesday pairs (GBP/AUD, EUR/AUD, AUD/CAD) and three Friday pairs (EUR/JPY, EUR/CAD, USD/CAD) are the only ones that break the mid-week rule. No pair has Monday as its busiest day.
At the quiet end, Monday is calmest for 13 pairs and Friday for 10. The split between those two groups is not random: the Monday-calmest list is dominated by AUD, NZD and GBP crosses - GBP/NZD, GBP/AUD, EUR/NZD, EUR/AUD, GBP/CAD, AUD/JPY, GBP/USD, NZD/JPY, EUR/CAD, AUD/CAD, USD/CAD, AUD/USD, AUD/CHF - while the Friday-calmest list is mostly CHF and EUR crosses plus the NZD pairs (EUR/USD, AUD/NZD, GBP/CHF, NZD/CAD, USD/CHF, NZD/USD, NZD/CHF, EUR/CHF, CAD/CHF, EUR/GBP). The four pairs calmest on Tuesday are all JPY crosses: GBP/JPY, CHF/JPY, USD/JPY and CAD/JPY.
The size of the effect is modest for most pairs. Nine pairs have a Monday range below 90% of their daily mean, every one of them with an AUD or NZD leg: GBP/NZD, GBP/AUD, EUR/NZD, EUR/AUD, AUD/JPY, AUD/CAD, AUD/NZD, AUD/USD and AUD/CHF. Five pairs have a Thursday range above 110% of their mean: GBP/AUD, USD/JPY, AUD/JPY, CAD/JPY and CAD/CHF. USD/JPY’s Thursday averages 120.6 pips against 93.8 on Tuesday; GBP/NZD’s Wednesday, 151.8 pips, is the single widest weekday figure in the table, with GBP/JPY’s Thursday (147.6) next.
Pairs Where the Day of the Week Barely Matters
The ratio column separates pairs where the weekday is worth planning around from pairs where it is noise. EUR/USD sits at 1.08x: 58.6, 60.9, 62.5, 62.0 and 57.8 pips from Monday to Friday, a five-pip spread on a 60-pip day. EUR/CHF is also 1.08x and CHF/JPY 1.13x. On these pairs a stop or grid step sized off the ADR250 figure is within a few percent of correct every day of the week.
AUD/NZD is at the other end at 1.52x - 49.5 pips on Monday, 61.3 Tuesday, 68.1 Wednesday, 55.4 Thursday, 44.7 Friday - a profile that peaks sharply mid-week and drops by a third into Friday. GBP/AUD (1.42x, 91.1 on Monday against 129.7 on Tuesday) and NZD/CHF (1.35x) are the next most lopsided. For these three a single all-week range figure is a genuine mis-sizing on at least two days out of five.
What This Means for EA Settings
Two EA inputs map directly onto this table. A fixed grid step in pips is a bet on how far price travels before the next level fills; on AUD/NZD a step sized to its 55.9-pip average day is about a quarter too wide for its 44.7-pip Friday and a fifth too narrow for its 68.1-pip Wednesday. On EUR/USD the same step is within about 4% of correct all week, and the weekday is not worth adjusting for.
The second input is a Friday-close switch, which many grid and swing EAs offer to avoid holding positions over the weekend gap. The table does not argue for or against it - the Friday figures are full-day ranges, not gap sizes - but it does show that Friday is already the narrowest or second-narrowest day for 20 of the 28 pairs, so a Friday-close rule that also stops opening new levels forgoes less range than the same rule would on a Wednesday. The grid trading strategy guide covers how to translate a measured range into spacing and level counts; the why grid EAs blow up guide covers the weekend-gap failure the Friday switch is meant to prevent.
Why Mid-Week Is Wider
The data does not identify causes, but the calendar is suggestive. Monday’s UTC day opens with Asia reacting to the weekend and no scheduled releases from the major economies until the European morning. Tuesday to Thursday carry the bulk of the scheduled calendar - central bank decisions cluster on Wednesdays and Thursdays - and Thursday also holds the week’s US jobless claims. Friday has the first-Friday US payrolls release, which makes individual Fridays very wide, but the other three or four Fridays of the month are quiet enough to pull the average below the mid-week days. The AUD and NZD pairs’ weak Monday is consistent with their own data calendars, which are front-loaded into Tuesday and Wednesday Asia time.
Treat that as context, not a mechanism this page has tested. The measurement is the table; the explanation is a plausible reading of it.
How This Differs From the Hourly and Session Tables
The hourly table shows a 2-3x spread between a pair’s widest and quietest hour, and the session table a 1.1-1.7x spread between its widest and quietest session. The weekday effect measured here is smaller again - 1.1-1.5x - which is the practical finding: the time of day matters more than the day of the week for every pair in this table. All three pages, and the average daily range table, run off the same cached candles with the same day filter, so a pair’s five weekday means here, weighted by their day counts, average back to its ADR250 figure on the daily table.
Refresh Schedule
The data file behind the table is rebuilt from Dukascopy every month, a few days after the month closes, together with the daily, hourly and session tables, and the as-of date under the table changes when it does. Nothing here is a forecast; most retail traders lose money trading forex regardless of which day they trade.