What Time the High of the Day Is Made
Updated September 20, 2026
The question, and how it is measured
What time the high of the day is made is one of the first questions people bring to futures. They expect one time slot that works for everything. In this series there is none: the split changes from one contract to the next, and it changes a lot.
The measurement is simple. For each session you find the moment price marked its high and check which slice of the 24-hour cycle it fell into. Over thousands of days, the count gives the percentage of times each slice took the extreme.
Four contracts are compared with the same calculation and the same period: the S&P 500 future (ES), the Nasdaq 100 future (NQ), gold (GC) and the ten-year Treasury note (ZN). They come out of the same procedure, so they can be compared with each other.
The three sessions of the 24-hour cycle
These contracts trade almost around the clock on a business day, so the day is cut into slices: the Asian one, the London one, which covers the European morning, and the New York one, which lines up with the US trading day.
The minutes that fall into none of those three windows are grouped separately, as out of session. They are the gaps between the close of one slice and the open of the next, and they are not negligible: extremes form there too.
Where the cut sits between one slice and the next is a convention. Moving that boundary shifts extremes from one column to another without the market doing anything different. The figures below hold for the cuts this series uses.
How the high splits across four contracts
The table takes every session, locates the high of the day and assigns it to one of the three windows. That is 4,175 sessions in ES, 4,175 in NQ, 4,155 in GC and 4,165 in ZN, between 2010-06-07 and 2026-09-15.
The two equity indices behave almost identically. In ES the high forms in Asia 15.5% of the time, in London 37.0% and in New York 29.4%. In NQ, 14.1%, 38.1% and 28.4% over its 4,175 sessions.
The other two pull away. In GC the split is 26.2% in Asia, 43.2% in London and 8.9% in New York, over 4,155 sessions. In ZN, 22.2%, 42.4% and 17.3% over 4,165 sessions. Whatever is missing from one hundred percent falls outside the three windows.
En que sesion se forma el maximo del dia
ES, NQ, GC, ZN
| Instrumento | Asia | Londres | Nueva York | Sesiones |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES | 15.5% | 37.0% | 29.4% | 4,175 |
| NQ | 14.1% | 38.1% | 28.4% | 4,175 |
| GC | 26.2% | 43.2% | 8.9% | 4,155 |
| ZN | 22.2% | 42.4% | 17.3% | 4,165 |
n = 16,670 · 2010-06-07 to 2026-09-15 · exchange data
Reparto del maximo diario entre las tres sesiones del ciclo de 24 horas. El resto hasta el 100% cae fuera de las tres ventanas, en los minutos entre cierre y apertura.
Gold breaks the general rule
The gold row deserves a look on its own. In GC the high of the day forms in London 43.2% of the time and in New York only 8.9%, over 4,155 sessions. It is the sharpest imbalance in the table.
Compare that with ES: London takes 37.0% of the highs and New York 29.4%, over 4,175 sessions. There is a European edge, but the two windows are far more even. Between GC and ES this is not a nuance, it is a different split.
ZN confirms gold is not an isolated case: 42.4% of highs in London against 17.3% in New York, over 4,165 sessions. Contracts that are not equity indices concentrate more extremes before New York opens.
The consequence is blunt. The hour you watch the market depends on the contract, not on a general rule. Carrying over to GC what you saw in ES means switching splits without noticing.
High and low in ES, with the out-of-session slice
The second table stays with ES and adds the other half of the day: where the low forms. Same 4,175 sessions and same period, with one column for the minutes that fall outside the three windows.
London produces 37.0% of the highs and 37.2% of the lows: the same weight on both sides. New York, 29.4% and 27.8%. The two busiest slices show no preference for one extreme.
Asia does: it contributes 15.5% of the highs and 22.3% of the lows, the clearest asymmetry in the table. And out of session collects 18.0% of the highs and 12.7% of the lows in ES.
Where the day's high and low form
ES
| Session | Day's high | Day's low | Sessions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asia | 15.5% | 22.3% | 4,175 |
| London | 37.0% | 37.2% | 4,175 |
| New York | 29.4% | 27.8% | 4,175 |
| Outside sessions | 18.0% | 12.7% | 4,175 |
n = 4,175 · 2010-06-07 to 2026-09-15 · exchange data
Split of the daily extreme across the three sessions of the 24-hour cycle. 'Outside sessions' are the minutes left between close and open.
The limits of this measurement
The windows are an agreement, not a fact about the market. Another source with different cuts will publish different percentages over the same days, and neither of them will be wrong.
The table records which slice the high fell into, not how far it stood from the rest of the day. A session can mark its high in Asia by a few points; in the count that weighs the same as a high that dominated the whole session.
The series runs from 2010-06-07 to 2026-09-15 and mixes very different volatility regimes. An average over that many years does not describe the month in front of you, nor does it separate sessions with a macro release from those without.
Then there is cost. An extreme forming overnight does not mean it can be traded there on the same terms: outside the main hours the spread is wider and the book thinner. No figure here accounts for spread, commissions or slippage.
How to use this split
The reasonable use is framing. Before settling the hours you follow a contract, look at where its extremes form over a large sample, instead of taking for granted the time slot you happen to be used to.
The second use is record keeping. Noting which slice held the extreme of every session you trade, and comparing it with the historical split for that contract, makes the table checkable against your own experience.
This text is informational material about reading historical data. It is not personalized investment advice, nor a recommendation about any instrument. Past results do not anticipate future ones, and trading futures involves risk of loss.
Frequently asked questions
- What time is the high of the day made in futures?
- It depends on the contract. In ES the high lands in the London slice 37.0% of the time and in the New York slice 29.4%, over 4,175 sessions. In GC, London takes 43.2% and New York 8.9%, over 4,155 sessions.
- Why does gold almost never make its high in New York?
- The table records the split, not the cause. In GC only 8.9% of daily highs appear in the New York slice, against 43.2% in London, over 4,155 sessions.
- Is this split useful for picking the best time to trade futures?
- Not on its own. It measures where extremes form, not whether trading that slice is profitable. Outside the main hours costs rise, and these figures do not account for spread, commissions or slippage.
- What does the out-of-session column mean?
- It holds the minutes of the 24-hour cycle that fall into none of the three windows. In ES they collect 18.0% of the highs and 12.7% of the lows, over 4,175 sessions.
These numbers, instrument by instrument
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