The last two columns contradict each other. In pips, AUD/USD is the second calmest of the seven; as a share of its price, the second most volatile. NZD/USD comes first on both counts. The reason is the price itself. A pip is a fixed step of 0.0001 on these pairs (0.01 on yen pairs), and over these two years the Australian dollar had a median close of 0.6583 US dollars, against 1.1544 for the euro. The same step is a bigger slice of a cheaper currency. What that means for your account depends on how you count: Per lot, it is smaller. With the dollar as the second currency, a pip is worth US$10 per standard lot of 100,000 units, just as on EUR/USD. A typical AUD/USD day is about US$510 of range per lot; a typical EUR/USD day, about US$640. Per dollar of exposure, it is bigger. That same lot is 100,000 Australian dollars, worth about US$66,000, against 100,000 euros, worth about US$115,000. For each dollar you have on the line, the aussie moves more. To turn either view into a position, there is the position size calculator, and lot sizes are explained in our guide to standard, mini and micro lots.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which meets eight times a year. On 29 September 2026 it raised its rate to 4.60%. In the hour the decision came out (04:00 UTC) AUD/USD covered 22 pips; in the next one, 44, after Governor Michele Bullock said, in Action Forex's account, that further tightening was “merely a hope” rather than a base case; the pair fell through 0.7000. A normal hour at that time covers 7 to 8. The rate was the expected part; the words were not. US data. In the hour non-farm payrolls (NFP) are released, its range is 2.58 times that same hour on an ordinary day, measured at 08:30 New York time on the first Friday of each month, the usual release day, over the 69 with data since 2021 (in the months the report came out on another day, that hour was an ordinary one, which pulls the figure down slightly); EUR/USD reaches 2.39, and EUR/GBP, the control, 1.30. Do not read that as a bigger move: in that hour its median is 37.5 pips, against 46.7 for EUR/USD. What is bigger is the jump over its normal hour at that time, which is quieter. What the release measures is in our NFP explainer, and to size a position with it ahead, there is the news risk calculator. China and commodities. Australia's iron ore goes largely to China, so Chinese demand data can move the aussie as hard as a rate decision; that is the reading in our RBA explainer. We cannot measure it: our price history holds currencies and metals, not iron ore or Chinese data. It is stated as a mechanism, with no number of ours behind it. Risk appetite. The aussie is the textbook risk-on currency and a frequent carry trade destination, as we explained in our article on the aussie's nickname. We hold no stock index to measure risk appetite against, so this one has no number of ours either.

AUD/USD: how much does it move, when, and what moves it?

Q: How much does AUD/USD move in a day?

Kind of day. Range. Very quiet (10th percentile). 30 pips. Quiet (25th percentile). 38 pips. Typical (median). 51 pips. Busy (75th percentile). 67 pips. Very busy (90th percentile). 88 pips. 29% of its days fail to reach 40 pips, and only 6% clear 100. Only NZD/USD is calmer. Pair. Median daily range. Days under 40 pips. Range as % of price. NZD/USD. 48 pips. 33%. 0.81%. AUD/USD. 51 pips. 29%. 0.76%. USD/CHF. 52 pips. 25%. 0.63%. USD/CAD. 59 pips. 17%. 0.42%. EUR/USD. 64 pips. 14%. 0.56%. GBP/USD. 79 pips. 5%. 0.60%. USD/JPY. 108 pips. 4%. 0.72%.

Q: What hours is it genuinely alive?

Window (UTC). Median range per hour. 00:00–02:00 · Sydney and Tokyo morning. 10 to 12 pips. 03:00–05:00 · Asian midday. 7 to 9 pips. 06:00–08:00 · London opens. 10 to 11 pips. 09:00–11:00 · European morning. 8 to 9 pips. 12:00–15:00 · London–New York overlap. 11 to 14 pips. 16:00–19:00 · New York afternoon. 6 to 10 pips. 20:00–23:00 · around the New York close. 5.5 to 8 pips. The peak is at 14:00 UTC with 14.3 pips and the trough at 20:00 with 5.5. The overlap still holds the most: on a typical day those four hours carry 55% of the range, against 60% for EUR/USD over the same window. The difference is the Asian session. On the European pairs it moves roughly half as much as the overlap; on AUD/USD, 72% as much, close to USD/JPY's 79%. And its best Asian hour, 01:00 UTC with 11.7 pips, beats the best hour of the London open (07:00, 11.1). That hour has a reason you can see in the news. On 24 September 2026 Australia's August jobs report came out at 01:30 UTC, and on 30 September its August inflation figure and China's official purchasing managers' indices landed in the same minute, as investingLive reported. Those are September dates: from October to April, Australian daylight saving moves Sydney's clock an hour forward, so releases at the same local time arrive an hour earlier in UTC. The map of sessions is in forex trading sessions and the Tokyo hour; live, on the session clock.

A 51-pip median day, an Asian morning busier than the London open, and a 0.89 correlation with NZD/USD. Measured on 521 days of our own price history.

OCT/9/2026 · 8 min readBy the ForexCommand team · Methodology · Standards

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AUD/USD: how much does it move, when, and what moves it?

AUD/USD is a pair that does not wait for London. Its busiest hour outside the London–New York overlap is 01:00 UTC, in the Sydney and Tokyo morning, and of the seven pairs we compare below only USD/JPY and NZD/USD share that trait.

It also tells two opposite stories depending on the ruler: in pips it is one of the calmest pairs, and as a share of its price one of the most volatile. Both are true, and which one matters depends on how you size.

How the numbers were built. Hourly bars from January 2021 to October 2026. The headline figures use the last two years, 521 Monday-to-Friday days (10 October 2024 to 8 October 2026), with Sundays excluded because in UTC they hold only the first two or three hours of the week. The other pairs in the tables are recomputed over that same window, so they can differ by a pip or two from their own articles. Every hour below is UTC.

How much does AUD/USD move in a day?

Kind of day	Range
Very quiet (10th percentile)	30 pips
Quiet (25th percentile)	38 pips
Typical (median)	51 pips
Busy (75th percentile)	67 pips
Very busy (90th percentile)	88 pips

29% of its days fail to reach 40 pips, and only 6% clear 100. Only NZD/USD is calmer.

Pair	Median daily range	Days under 40 pips	Range as % of price
NZD/USD	48 pips	33%	0.81%
AUD/USD	51 pips	29%	0.76%
USD/CHF	52 pips	25%	0.63%
USD/CAD	59 pips	17%	0.42%
EUR/USD	64 pips	14%	0.56%
GBP/USD	79 pips	5%	0.60%
USD/JPY	108 pips	4%	0.72%

Pips or percent?

The last two columns contradict each other. In pips, AUD/USD is the second calmest of the seven; as a share of its price, the second most volatile. NZD/USD comes first on both counts.

The reason is the price itself. A pip is a fixed step of 0.0001 on these pairs (0.01 on yen pairs), and over these two years the Australian dollar had a median close of 0.6583 US dollars, against 1.1544 for the euro. The same step is a bigger slice of a cheaper currency.

What that means for your account depends on how you count:

Per lot, it is smaller. With the dollar as the second currency, a pip is worth US$10 per standard lot of 100,000 units, just as on EUR/USD. A typical AUD/USD day is about US$510 of range per lot; a typical EUR/USD day, about US$640.
Per dollar of exposure, it is bigger. That same lot is 100,000 Australian dollars, worth about US$66,000, against 100,000 euros, worth about US$115,000. For each dollar you have on the line, the aussie moves more.

To turn either view into a position, there is the position size calculator, and lot sizes are explained in our guide to standard, mini and micro lots.

What hours is it genuinely alive?

Window (UTC)	Median range per hour
00:00–02:00 · Sydney and Tokyo morning	10 to 12 pips
03:00–05:00 · Asian midday	7 to 9 pips
06:00–08:00 · London opens	10 to 11 pips
09:00–11:00 · European morning	8 to 9 pips
12:00–15:00 · London–New York overlap	11 to 14 pips
16:00–19:00 · New York afternoon	6 to 10 pips
20:00–23:00 · around the New York close	5.5 to 8 pips

The peak is at 14:00 UTC with 14.3 pips and the trough at 20:00 with 5.5. The overlap still holds the most: on a typical day those four hours carry 55% of the range, against 60% for EUR/USD over the same window.

The difference is the Asian session. On the European pairs it moves roughly half as much as the overlap; on AUD/USD, 72% as much, close to USD/JPY's 79%. And its best Asian hour, 01:00 UTC with 11.7 pips, beats the best hour of the London open (07:00, 11.1).

That hour has a reason you can see in the news. On 24 September 2026 Australia's August jobs report came out at 01:30 UTC, and on 30 September its August inflation figure and China's official purchasing managers' indices landed in the same minute, as investingLive reported. Those are September dates: from October to April, Australian daylight saving moves Sydney's clock an hour forward, so releases at the same local time arrive an hour earlier in UTC. The map of sessions is in forex trading sessions and the Tokyo hour; live, on the session clock.

What moves AUD/USD?

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which meets eight times a year. On 29 September 2026 it raised its rate to 4.60%. In the hour the decision came out (04:00 UTC) AUD/USD covered 22 pips; in the next one, 44, after Governor Michele Bullock said, in Action Forex's account, that further tightening was “merely a hope” rather than a base case; the pair fell through 0.7000. A normal hour at that time covers 7 to 8. The rate was the expected part; the words were not.
US data. In the hour non-farm payrolls (NFP) are released, its range is 2.58 times that same hour on an ordinary day, measured at 08:30 New York time on the first Friday of each month, the usual release day, over the 69 with data since 2021 (in the months the report came out on another day, that hour was an ordinary one, which pulls the figure down slightly); EUR/USD reaches 2.39, and EUR/GBP, the control, 1.30. Do not read that as a bigger move: in that hour its median is 37.5 pips, against 46.7 for EUR/USD. What is bigger is the jump over its normal hour at that time, which is quieter. What the release measures is in our NFP explainer, and to size a position with it ahead, there is the news risk calculator.
China and commodities. Australia's iron ore goes largely to China, so Chinese demand data can move the aussie as hard as a rate decision; that is the reading in our RBA explainer. We cannot measure it: our price history holds currencies and metals, not iron ore or Chinese data. It is stated as a mechanism, with no number of ours behind it.
Risk appetite. The aussie is the textbook risk-on currency and a frequent carry trade destination, as we explained in our article on the aussie's nickname. We hold no stock index to measure risk appetite against, so this one has no number of ours either.

What moves with it and what does not?

Gold, less than it seems. Gold is often listed among the aussie's drivers, but over these two years their daily returns had a correlation of +0.47, barely above EUR/USD's +0.40 with gold. Most of what they share is the dollar on the other side, the same engine we found in our study of gold and EUR/USD.

It is not a copy of EUR/USD. Their correlation is +0.61, which leaves more than 60% of the movement unexplained. It looks more like USD/CAD inverted (−0.67): two currencies of commodity exporters against the same dollar.

Its real twin is NZD/USD, at +0.89, the strongest correlation between any two currency pairs in this series, above the −0.83 of EUR/USD and USD/CHF. Holding both is, in practice, holding one position twice.

Is it a good pair to start on?

It can be, with two conditions. It is calm in pips, a typical day is smaller per lot than on EUR/USD (though not per dollar of exposure), and it is one of the few pairs worth watching in the Asian morning, when the European pairs move about half as much as in the overlap.

The first condition is to size by money, not by pips: per dollar of exposure it moves more than EUR/USD. The second is to know the calendar of the Asian morning, because the RBA, Australian data and Chinese data arrive there, while Europe sleeps. Measure the spread against a 51-pip day, and use ATR (Average True Range) to fit the stop to recent weeks.

What these numbers do not tell you

China and iron ore are left out. They are real drivers of this pair and we have not measured them, because we do not hold those series.
The median is not your day. It describes the centre of a distribution, not what happens tomorrow.
No spread and no slippage are inside it. Our history stores prices, not costs.
The granularity is one hour, so a five-minute spike is invisible, and the RBA day above is a single example, not an average.
This is not a forecast. It describes how the pair has behaved; the past shapes the expectation, never the outcome.