NQ (Nasdaq 100 E-mini Futures) 20 Minute Range by Time of Day
How much does the E-mini Nasdaq 100 actually move on the 20 minute chart at different times of day? The table below is measured from 1,568 recorded 20 minute bars across 4 recent sessions: for each hour of the day, the average distance between a bar's high and its low.
| Hour | Avg 20 minute range | |
|---|---|---|
| 6:00 AM ET | 5.74 pts | |
| 7:00 AM ET | 5.82 pts | |
| 8:00 AM ET | 5.78 pts | |
| 9:00 AM ET | 6.16 pts | |
| 2:00 PM ET | 6.20 pts | |
| 3:00 PM ET | 6.21 pts | |
| 5:00 PM ET | 5.88 pts | |
| 6:00 PM ET | 6.30 pts | |
| 7:00 PM ET | 5.90 pts | |
| 8:00 PM ET | 5.75 pts | |
| 9:00 PM ET | 5.55 pts |
How to read this
The most active hours in this window were 6:00 PM, 3:00 PM, 2:00 PM ET, and the quietest were 9:00 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 1× the ground of the quietest.
These figures shift with volatility regimes — they describe the recorded window above, not a guarantee of the next session.