How much does the Micro E-mini S&P 500 actually move on the 5-minute chart at different times of day? The table below is measured from 2,860 recorded 5-minute bars across 13 recent sessions: for each hour of the day, the average distance between a bar's high and its low.
| Hour | Avg 5-minute range | |
|---|---|---|
| 12:00 AM ET | 1.86 pts | |
| 1:00 AM ET | 2.67 pts | |
| 2:00 AM ET | 2.66 pts | |
| 3:00 AM ET | 3.30 pts | |
| 4:00 AM ET | 3.90 pts | |
| 5:00 AM ET | 2.84 pts | |
| 6:00 AM ET | 2.63 pts | |
| 7:00 AM ET | 3.54 pts | |
| 8:00 AM ET | 4.62 pts | |
| 9:00 AM ET | 6.16 pts | |
| 10:00 AM ET | 7.04 pts | |
| 11:00 AM ET | 5.79 pts | |
| 12:00 PM ET | 4.84 pts | |
| 1:00 PM ET | 4.11 pts | |
| 2:00 PM ET | 3.94 pts | |
| 3:00 PM ET | 4.05 pts | |
| 4:00 PM ET | 3.27 pts | |
| 6:00 PM ET | 2.57 pts | |
| 7:00 PM ET | 1.92 pts | |
| 8:00 PM ET | 3.12 pts | |
| 9:00 PM ET | 2.94 pts | |
| 10:00 PM ET | 2.59 pts | |
| 11:00 PM ET | 2.05 pts |
The most active hours in this window were 10:00 AM, 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM ET, and the quietest were 12:00 AM and 7:00 PM 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.