EUR/USD: Daily Range, Character and Trading Hours

EUR/USD moves a median of 58 pips per day. Half of all days fall between 40 and 84 pips, and the widest day in our sample reached 272. Every figure below comes from 518 daily bars covering 2024-07-29 to 2026-07-30.

EUR/USD character: how the pair behaves

EUR/USD is the most heavily traded pair in the world, and that shows in how it behaves: the tightest spreads, the most orderly reaction to news, and moves that tend to unfold in steps rather than jumps. It is the pair where technical levels are respected most consistently, simply because the largest number of participants are watching the same chart.

Measured daily range

• Median daily range: 58 pips
• Typical band (middle 80% of days): 40–84 pips
• Widest single day in sample: 272 pips
• Median close-to-close change: 28 pips; the largest 20% of days exceed 54
• Range of the pair over the whole period: 1.0244–1.2018, a span of 1773 pips

The gap between the median range and the widest day is the number worth remembering. A stop sized for a typical day is not a stop sized for the tail, and the tail is where accounts are damaged.

When it trades

The pair comes alive during European hours and peaks when London and New York overlap. Asian hours usually leave it in a narrow range, because neither currency has a natural flow of business at that time.

Who it suits

Its liquidity makes it forgiving of beginner mistakes in execution, which is why it is the standard starting instrument. The flip side is that its calmness is deceptive: a small typical range tempts traders into oversized positions.

Sizing a position on EUR/USD

Because the typical day is modest, the temptation is to trade a larger size than the pair deserves. The correct order is the reverse: take the stop distance the setup requires, then derive the position size from it. On the widest days this pair travels close to five times its median, and a position sized for the median will not survive that.

Data: 518 daily bars, 0 incomplete bars excluded. The sample is available for download and the method is described in how we run backtests. What actually moves this pair is covered separately in what drives EUR/USD.

This material is educational and is not individual investment advice. Trading forex carries the risk of losing capital.