MES (Micro S&P 500 Futures) 5 Minute Range by Time of Day
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 4,389 recorded 5 minute bars across 23 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 | 1.97 pts | |
| 1:00 AM ET | 2.31 pts | |
| 2:00 AM ET | 3.02 pts | |
| 3:00 AM ET | 3.69 pts | |
| 4:00 AM ET | 3.87 pts | |
| 5:00 AM ET | 3.16 pts | |
| 6:00 AM ET | 3.25 pts | |
| 7:00 AM ET | 3.82 pts | |
| 8:00 AM ET | 4.19 pts | |
| 9:00 AM ET | 5.74 pts | |
| 10:00 AM ET | 7.59 pts | |
| 11:00 AM ET | 6.35 pts | |
| 12:00 PM ET | 5.82 pts | |
| 1:00 PM ET | 5.53 pts | |
| 2:00 PM ET | 4.71 pts | |
| 3:00 PM ET | 4.71 pts | |
| 4:00 PM ET | 2.98 pts | |
| 6:00 PM ET | 2.69 pts | |
| 7:00 PM ET | 1.99 pts | |
| 8:00 PM ET | 3.15 pts | |
| 9:00 PM ET | 2.74 pts | |
| 10:00 PM ET | 2.38 pts | |
| 11:00 PM ET | 2.14 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 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.
