Exness Trading Hours — Spread and Movement by Hour · South Africa
How the measured spread and the average hourly movement change through the trading day on Exness’s MetaTrader 5 feed — measured 9 Aug · 09:31 SAST. Hours are platform server time.
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A trading hour is attractive when the market moves a lot relative to what entering costs. The last column divides the average hourly movement by the average spread in that hour — more movement per pip of spread means the hour is cheaper to trade relative to its opportunity, before strategy and news are considered.
BTC/USD hour by hour (measured)
| Hour (server) | Avg spread (pts) | Avg movement (pts) | Movement per pt of spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 1000 | 20667.1 | 21× |
| 01:00 | 1000 | 26531.7 | 27× |
| 02:00 | 1000 | 20208.6 | 20× |
| 03:00 | 1000 | 22146.9 | 22× |
| 04:00 | 1000 | 21282.4 | 21× |
| 05:00 | 1000 | 19995.6 | 20× |
| 06:00 | 1000 | 16030.6 | 16× |
| 07:00 | 1000 | 17740.3 | 18× |
| 08:00 | 1000 | 25898.4 | 26× |
| 09:00 | 1000 | 22667.6 | 23× |
| 10:00 | 1000 | 19028.1 | 19× |
| 11:00 | 1000 | 19869.7 | 20× |
| 12:00 | 1000 | 31951.3 | 32× |
| 13:00 | 1000 | 39486.6 | 39× |
| 14:00 | 1000 | 44128.9 | 44× |
| 15:00 | 1000 | 29047.7 | 29× |
| 16:00 | 1000 | 24491.1 | 24× |
| 17:00 | 1000 | 26411 | 26× |
| 18:00 | 1000 | 25617.7 | 26× |
| 19:00 | 1000 | 19381.7 | 19× |
| 20:00 | 1000 | 18916.9 | 19× |
| 21:00 | 1000 | 19232 | 19× |
| 22:00 | 1000 | 20299.4 | 20× |
| 23:00 | 1000 | 19847.7 | 20× |
Spread = average of all quotes captured in that hour over the last 24h; movement = average high–low of that hour over the last 7 sessions. Hours are MT5 server time.
All instruments — where spreads tighten and widen
| Instrument | Tightest avg spread | Widest avg spread | Biggest hourly movement | Movement-per-cost peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BTC/USD | 1000 at 07:00 | 1000 at 07:00 | 44128.9 at 14:00 | 14:00 |
| ETH/USD | 100 at 07:00 | 100 at 07:00 | 1512.6 at 13:00 | 13:00 |
Spread in pips (points for non-FX). ‘Movement-per-cost peak’ is the hour with the most movement per pip of spread.
The rollover hour
In this sample the widest BTC/USD hour was 07:00 server time, where the average spread ran about 1× the typical hour. This is the daily rollover window — swaps are applied, liquidity providers reset, and quotes briefly widen. Positions held with tight stop-losses through this hour can be stopped out by the spread alone. The most active hours by tick count were 00:00, 02:00, 13:00, 14:00.
How this was measured
- Spread by hour: every captured quote on Exness's own MT5 feed, bucketed by server hour (last 24h).
- Movement by hour: average H1 candle range over the last 7 sessions, from the same feed.
- The ratio compares movement to entry cost only — it is not a prediction of direction.
- Figures refresh on a schedule and vary day to day.
Measured in-terminal on Exness’s own MetaTrader 5 pricing feed and symbol specifications, refreshed on a schedule. All figures are indicative and change with market conditions.
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