Trading Hours and the Machine: Open All Day, or Started When Needed — Lesotho
The hours below describe the market. This page is about the other schedule — the one the computer keeps, and what is given up each time the program is closed and opened again.
Open Exness Account →There are two ways to run the same terminal across a day, and the difference is not comfort. A program left open holds its connection, keeps the bars it has already fetched and keeps anything set to watch for a level; a program started per task rebuilds part of that each time it opens and hands the machine back in between. Neither arrangement touches an open position, which is what makes the choice a matter of the computer rather than of the market.
The other schedule: the one the machine keeps
Alongside the market timetable there is a second one that belongs to the desk. A terminal left open from morning to evening keeps its connection, keeps the bars it has already fetched and keeps whatever was set to watch for a level; a terminal started when there is something to do rebuilds part of that each time, and gives the machine back for the rest of the day. Which arrangement suits depends on the computer rather than on the hours below.
EUR/USD hour by hour (measured)
| Hour (server) | Avg spread (pips) | Avg movement (pips) | Movement per pip of spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 0.8 | 5.2 | 6× |
| 01:00 | 0.8 | 5.9 | 7× |
| 02:00 | 0.8 | 6.4 | 8× |
| 03:00 | 0.8 | 4.8 | 6× |
| 04:00 | 0.8 | 4.6 | 6× |
| 05:00 | 0.8 | 5 | 6× |
| 06:00 | 0.8 | 8.4 | 10× |
| 07:00 | 0.8 | 8.6 | 11× |
| 08:00 | 0.8 | 7.8 | 10× |
| 09:00 | 0.8 | 8.5 | 11× |
| 10:00 | 0.8 | 6.1 | 8× |
| 11:00 | 0.801 | 10.2 | 13× |
| 12:00 | 0.8 | 19.3 | 24× |
| 13:00 | 0.8 | 13.6 | 17× |
| 14:00 | 0.8 | 12.5 | 16× |
| 15:00 | 0.8 | 11.5 | 14× |
| 16:00 | 0.8 | 9.1 | 11× |
| 17:00 | 0.8 | 7.9 | 10× |
| 18:00 | 0.8 | 6.6 | 8× |
| 19:00 | 0.8 | 5.6 | 7× |
| 20:00 | 3.629 | 4.3 | 1× |
| 21:00 | 0.955 | 4.8 | 5× |
| 22:00 | 0.8 | 3.7 | 5× |
| 23:00 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 4× |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 0.8 at 07:00 | 3.629 at 20:00 | 19.3 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| GBP/USD | 1 at 07:00 | 3.473 at 20:00 | 23.9 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| USD/JPY | 1 at 07:00 | 12.682 at 20:00 | 51 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| AUD/USD | 0.9 at 07:00 | 3.501 at 20:00 | 15.4 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| USD/CAD | 1.4 at 07:00 | 2.209 at 20:00 | 21.7 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| USD/CHF | 1.3 at 07:00 | 3.223 at 20:00 | 19.3 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| NZD/USD | 1.4 at 07:00 | 4.498 at 20:00 | 15.3 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| EUR/GBP | 1.3 at 07:00 | 3.757 at 21:00 | 6.2 at 14:00 | 14:00 |
| EUR/JPY | 1.6 at 07:00 | 11.591 at 20:00 | 41.5 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| GBP/JPY | 2.113 at 08:00 | 13.645 at 20:00 | 51 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| AUD/JPY | 1.1 at 07:00 | 6.307 at 20:00 | 26.4 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| XAU/USD (Gold) | 26 at 07:00 | 26.982 at 11:00 | 3331 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| XAG/USD (Silver) | 2.842 at 11:00 | 3 at 07:00 | 81.7 at 12:00 | 12:00 |
| US Oil (WTI) | 1.978 at 11:00 | 2 at 07:00 | 119.6 at 11:00 | 11:00 |
| UK Oil (Brent) | 3.273 at 20:00 | 3.77 at 23:00 | 117.1 at 11:00 | 11:00 |
| BTC/USD | 1000 at 07:00 | 1000 at 07:00 | 40628.4 at 14:00 | 14:00 |
| ETH/USD | 100 at 07:00 | 100 at 07:00 | 1364.3 at 14:00 | 14:00 |
| US500 (S&P 500) | 42 at 00:00 | 53.164 at 11:00 | 2589.4 at 14:00 | 14:00 |
| US30 (Dow) | 11 at 07:00 | 12.097 at 21:00 | 2622.6 at 13:00 | 13:00 |
| USTEC (Nasdaq 100) | 127 at 07:00 | 132.749 at 11:00 | 21276.3 at 13:00 | 13:00 |
| DE30 (DAX) | 7 at 07:00 | 69.213 at 22:00 | 1105.9 at 07:00 | 07:00 |
| JP225 (Nikkei 225) | 32.505 at 02:00 | 39 at 20:00 | 7106.9 at 00:00 | 00:00 |
| UK100 (FTSE 100) | 99 at 15:00 | 1075 at 21:00 | 3782 at 07:00 | 07:00 |
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 EUR/USD hour was 20:00 server time, where the average spread ran about 5× 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 11:00, 12:00, 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.
Open Exness Account →What a program stops keeping when it is closed
Anything that only exists while the program runs stops with it. A watch set to notice a level is the clearest example: it lives inside the running program, so a closed terminal is not watching anything, and nothing about reopening it later recovers the interval that was missed.
A partly completed download of bars is the second. If a long history was still filling in when the program was closed, the part already written to disk is kept and the rest simply was not fetched, so the first scroll backwards after reopening asks for it again.
What is not lost either way
Positions and pending orders are held on the broker side and are entirely unaffected by whether anything is open on the desk. So are the levels attached to them. This is the fact that makes closing the program a cheap decision rather than a nervous one.
Saved templates, window profiles and the bars already written to disk are files, and files survive the program that made them. A terminal reopened after a week comes back with the same arrangement it had, minus only the things that had to be running to be true.
The cost of leaving it open all day
A program that stays open keeps every chart in it subscribed and redrawing, whether or not anybody is looking. On a machine also used for other work that is a share of memory and processor time held all day for the sake of the minutes it is actually read.
The reasonable middle is a small standing arrangement and a larger one opened on demand: two or three charts left running because something is being watched on them, and the full workspace kept as a template that opens in one step when there is a reason for it.
Deciding which mode a machine should run in
- Ask whether anything genuinely needs to be watched while you are elsewhere; if not, the standing arrangement can be nothing.
- Keep the charts that are being watched, and only those, in the arrangement left open.
- Save the full workspace as a template so opening it later is one step rather than a rebuild.
- On a computer shared with other work, prefer starting per task — the memory is worth more than the warm start.
- On a machine that does nothing else, leaving it open is the cheaper habit, because nothing is competing for what it holds.
Neither mode affects an open position: those are held on the broker side and are unaffected by what is running on the desk.