Spreadsheet: spread by hour for your home pair
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2026 11:30 am
Brokers advertise average spreads, but averages across 24 hours hide huge variation. A spread-by-hour sheet for the pair you trade most is one of the most useful tools you can build.
How to collect the data:
Option 1, manual: note the spread at the start of each hour you're at the screen. Tedious but simple.
Option 2, automatic: a small MT5 script that records bid and ask every minute to a CSV. Run it for two weeks.
Then build a table:
Hour (UK) | Median spread | 90th percentile | Max
07:00 | ... | ... | ...
08:00 | ... | ... | ...
...
The median shows normal conditions. The 90th percentile shows how bad it gets on busy days. The max shows the outliers.
Typical patterns on majors: tightest during London morning and the overlap, widest around rollover, wider during Asia for EUR and GBP pairs.
Use it to set realistic spread filters per hour rather than one fixed value for the whole day.
Would anyone be willing to share hourly spread tables for comparison? Broker names can be left out.
How to collect the data:
Option 1, manual: note the spread at the start of each hour you're at the screen. Tedious but simple.
Option 2, automatic: a small MT5 script that records bid and ask every minute to a CSV. Run it for two weeks.
Then build a table:
Hour (UK) | Median spread | 90th percentile | Max
07:00 | ... | ... | ...
08:00 | ... | ... | ...
...
The median shows normal conditions. The 90th percentile shows how bad it gets on busy days. The max shows the outliers.
Typical patterns on majors: tightest during London morning and the overlap, widest around rollover, wider during Asia for EUR and GBP pairs.
Use it to set realistic spread filters per hour rather than one fixed value for the whole day.
Would anyone be willing to share hourly spread tables for comparison? Broker names can be left out.