How much does the Micro E-mini Nasdaq-100 actually move on the 30-minute chart at different times of day? The table below is measured from 2,702 recorded 30-minute bars across 10 recent sessions: for each hour of the day, the average distance between a bar's high and its low.
| Hour | Avg 30-minute range | |
|---|---|---|
| 12:00 AM ET | 9.61 pts | |
| 6:00 AM ET | 15.40 pts | |
| 7:00 AM ET | 11.89 pts | |
| 8:00 AM ET | 17.78 pts | |
| 9:00 AM ET | 20.83 pts | |
| 10:00 AM ET | 23.84 pts | |
| 11:00 AM ET | 28.19 pts | |
| 1:00 PM ET | 10.52 pts | |
| 2:00 PM ET | 9.43 pts | |
| 3:00 PM ET | 10.28 pts | |
| 5:00 PM ET | 4.47 pts | |
| 7:00 PM ET | 10.27 pts | |
| 8:00 PM ET | 9.83 pts | |
| 9:00 PM ET | 8.96 pts | |
| 10:00 PM ET | 9.84 pts | |
| 11:00 PM ET | 7.88 pts |
The most active hours in this window were 11:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 9:00 AM ET, and the quietest were 5:00 PM and 11:00 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 6× the ground of the quietest.
These figures shift with volatility regimes — they describe the recorded window above, not a guarantee of the next session.