WattMarkets
— EST
PJMWARNINGPeak probability 99% today · window 3:00 PM ET–6:00 PM ET
NYISOWARNINGPeak probability 95% today · window 4:00 PM ET–6:00 PM ET

Day-ahead vs. real-time

Every morning the day-ahead market prices tomorrow, hour by hour. This page grades that bet against what the grid actually paid.

Two prices for every hour

Jul 15 · EST · 8-hub average- - day-ahead — real-time
$-83$195$472$749$102612 AM6 AM12 PM6 PM11 PM
Spread by hour (RT − DA)12 AM: −$6.791 AM: +$5.972 AM: +$0.553 AM: +$0.824 AM: +$1.875 AM: +$2.526 AM: +$20.357 AM: +$8.578 AM: +$4.869 AM: +$18.5510 AM: +$2.6011 AM: +$6.7112 PM: +$0.861 PM: +$135.762 PM: +$5.593 PM: −$6.954 PM: +$192.975 PM: +$369.176 PM: +$186.827 PM: +$401.088 PM: −$222.57

Where the misses landed

by hub and hour · click a hub to re-scope the chart above
settled under day-aheadsettled overnot yet gradeddeeper = bigger miss · exact numbers on hover

Hub rows rank by today's average miss. zone mean of the load-zone settlement point prices.

Today so far
$175.43
real-time average vs $121.66 day-ahead
Settled under day-ahead
67%
of 647 hours since 2026-06-15
Biggest miss of the window
+$950.96
Jul 6 7:00 PM EST: priced $81.19, settled $1032.15
Tomorrow's prices
$28.34–$459.97
tomorrow's day-ahead range, cheapest to priciest hour

The premium by hour

average spread by hour
+$33−$3312AM: −$0.71 over 27 hours1AM: +$0.59 over 27 hours2AM: −$0.02 over 27 hours3AM: −$0.35 over 27 hours4AM: −$0.37 over 27 hours5AM: −$1.30 over 27 hours6AM: −$0.94 over 27 hours7AM: −$1.01 over 27 hours8AM: +$1.06 over 27 hours9AM: +$0.51 over 27 hours10AM: −$1.91 over 27 hours11AM: −$4.32 over 27 hours12PM: −$5.00 over 27 hours1PM: +$0.29 over 27 hours2PM: −$6.70 over 27 hours3PM: −$8.80 over 27 hours4PM: +$5.92 over 27 hours5PM: −$9.23 over 27 hours6PM: −$32.58 over 27 hours7PM: +$31.08 over 27 hours8PM: −$6.72 over 26 hours9PM: −$10.10 over 27 hours10PM: −$2.66 over 27 hours11PM: +$1.97 over 27 hours12AM6AM12PM6PM

Average of 647 paired hours since 2026-06-15. Fills in as the record grows.

Late afternoon carries the day's scarcity, so those are the hours day-ahead prices hardest. When this chart bulges violet after 3 PM, that is why.

Tomorrow is already priced

the day-ahead bet
$57$43112 AM12 PM11 PM$459.97

Jul 16, as the day-ahead market cleared it. Real time starts grading at midnight.

Today by hub

day-ahead vs real-time averages
HubDay-ahead avgReal-time avgSpread
Arkansas$32.49$115.47+$81.95
Illinois$190.88$214.50+$11.69
Indiana$197.94$207.96−$2.50
Louisiana$36.98$135.30+$97.32
Michigan$205.58$259.39+$40.50
Minnesota$176.73$210.27+$23.68
Mississippi$37.84$130.38+$91.23
Texas$41.90$130.20+$86.34

Real-time averages cover graded hours only. Full interval detail is on the prices page.

What is the day-ahead market?

MISO clears a day-ahead market every morning: offers close mid-morning and results post by 3 PM EST, locking an hourly price for every hour of tomorrow. Most MISO load settles against those prices, and the real-time market trues up the difference every five minutes.

What is DART?

Trader shorthand for the day-ahead to real-time spread. On this page the spread is real time minus day-ahead, so a positive number means the hour settled above its day-ahead price and a negative number means day-ahead carried a premium.

Why do the two prices differ?

The day-ahead price embeds a forecast of weather, demand, and which plants will run. Real time is the grid as found. MISO adds distance: the footprint runs from the Gulf Coast to Manitoba, and weather that surprises one region shows up in real time wherever the lines bind.

Where does this data come from?

MISO's public data feeds: day-ahead hourly and real-time five-minute prices for the eight hubs shown here, the same feeds behind the prices page. MISO runs its market day on EST year-round, so every day grades a full 24 hours.

Prices right now →The live dashboard →What is the day-ahead market →