How much does the Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 actually move on the 1-minute chart at different times of day? The table below is measured from 4,139 recorded 1-minute bars across 16 recent sessions: for each hour of the day, the average distance between a bar's high and its low.
| Hour | Avg 1-minute range | |
|---|---|---|
| 12:00 AM ET | 17.96 pts | |
| 1:00 AM ET | 17.58 pts | |
| 2:00 AM ET | 15.10 pts | |
| 3:00 AM ET | 15.28 pts | |
| 4:00 AM ET | 13.72 pts | |
| 5:00 AM ET | 11.19 pts | |
| 6:00 AM ET | 10.96 pts | |
| 7:00 AM ET | 11.56 pts | |
| 8:00 AM ET | 22.56 pts | |
| 9:00 AM ET | 26.10 pts | |
| 10:00 AM ET | 27.02 pts | |
| 11:00 AM ET | 21.70 pts | |
| 12:00 PM ET | 15.69 pts | |
| 1:00 PM ET | 14.36 pts | |
| 2:00 PM ET | 13.87 pts | |
| 3:00 PM ET | 15.28 pts | |
| 4:00 PM ET | 13.51 pts | |
| 6:00 PM ET | 7.01 pts | |
| 7:00 PM ET | 27.30 pts | |
| 9:00 PM ET | 48.09 pts | |
| 10:00 PM ET | 20.69 pts | |
| 11:00 PM ET | 18.98 pts |
The most active hours in this window were 9:00 PM, 7:00 PM, 10:00 AM ET, and the quietest were 6:00 PM and 6:00 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 7× the ground of the quietest.
These figures shift with volatility regimes — they describe the recorded window above, not a guarantee of the next session.