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Seasonality · Measured

Forex Seasonality, Month by Month

October is the widest month for GBP/USD at 108.2 pips a day; December the narrowest at 90.8. Roughly five years of each month, so treat the ordering as indicative rather than settled.
Octwidest month
108.2pips per day in it
Decnarrowest month
90.8pips per day
How this was measured. Computed from 1,898,746 one-minute GBPUSD candles covering 2021-01-03 to 2026-04-30 — 1,595 trading days. Range means high minus low over the stated period, grouped by real clock time in UTC rather than by bar count, so an hour is an hour even across a weekend. Figures are in pips. The underlying numbers are published as JSON at https://fxabsolute.com/stats/GBPUSD.json.

GBP/USD by month

MonthAvg daily rangeDays closing upDays sampled
January98.447.2%125
February96.451.4%109
March97.246.7%122
April95.149.2%126
May91.256.6%99
June10048%102
July95.548.2%110
August91.746.3%108
September107.543.5%108
October108.243.4%106
November10651.5%103
December90.854.5%110

The "closing up" column is where caution is needed. Each month has around 111 days behind it — about five years' worth — and a share of 43% or 55% at that sample size is not far outside what chance produces. The range column is the more trustworthy half of this table.

The same months, other instruments

InstrumentWidest monthRangeNarrowest monthRange
GBP/USDOctober108.2December90.8
EUR/USDNovember86.3December67.6
USD/JPYAugust132.5February104.7
GBP/JPYOctober176.8February143.2
Gold (XAU/USD)March574.6August265

How much to trust five samples

Five Octobers is five observations. A month that looks 15% wider than another may simply have contained one memorable week. The pattern worth acting on is the broad one — a quieter mid-summer and a busier autumn show up across instruments — rather than the exact ordering, which would reshuffle with another two years of data.

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Questions

What is the most volatile month in forex?

In this sample, October for GBP/USD at 108.2 pips a day. With around five observations per month, treat the ordering as indicative.

Which month is quietest?

December, averaging 90.8 pips a day on GBP/USD.

Is forex seasonality reliable?

The range side is reasonably consistent across instruments — quieter mid-summer, busier autumn. The direction side is not: at roughly five years per month, a 43% or 55% up-share is close to what chance alone would produce.