MES (Micro S&P 500 Futures) 15 Minute Range by Time of Day
How much does the Micro E mini S&P 500 actually move on the 15 minute chart at different times of day? The table below is measured from 1,506 recorded 15 minute bars across 21 recent sessions: for each hour of the day, the average distance between a bar's high and its low.
| Hour | Avg 15 minute range | |
|---|---|---|
| 12:00 AM ET | 3.51 pts | |
| 1:00 AM ET | 4.00 pts | |
| 2:00 AM ET | 5.49 pts | |
| 3:00 AM ET | 6.52 pts | |
| 4:00 AM ET | 7.28 pts | |
| 5:00 AM ET | 5.90 pts | |
| 6:00 AM ET | 5.72 pts | |
| 7:00 AM ET | 7.04 pts | |
| 8:00 AM ET | 8.13 pts | |
| 9:00 AM ET | 9.30 pts | |
| 10:00 AM ET | 13.44 pts | |
| 11:00 AM ET | 11.46 pts | |
| 12:00 PM ET | 10.66 pts | |
| 1:00 PM ET | 10.08 pts | |
| 2:00 PM ET | 8.10 pts | |
| 3:00 PM ET | 6.71 pts | |
| 4:00 PM ET | 6.64 pts | |
| 6:00 PM ET | 5.09 pts | |
| 7:00 PM ET | 3.16 pts | |
| 8:00 PM ET | 4.99 pts | |
| 9:00 PM ET | 4.52 pts | |
| 10:00 PM ET | 3.89 pts | |
| 11:00 PM ET | 3.72 pts |
How to read this
The most active hours in this window were 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM ET, and the quietest were 7:00 PM and 12:00 AM ET. A wider bar means each interval covers more ground. The takeaway is purely observational: a fixed number of points represents a very different share of typical movement at different hours — in this window, the most active hour covered roughly 4× the ground of the quietest.
These figures shift with volatility regimes — they describe the recorded window above, not a guarantee of the next session.
