How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?

Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.

How much history does the pattern need?

Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning Normal Horde US through the night fills the gaps.

Best hours to buy and sell

Pick a market and an item. Every hour of the day shows its typical price, lowest buyout and listings, and the page names the cheapest hours to buy, the dearest to sell, and what the gap is worth after the 5 percent cut.

On Normal Horde US, Gloves of the Fang is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 246% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Horde US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/horde/us

1MarketEach house keeps its own hours.2WindowDays of scans the hours are averaged over.3ItemKept while you switch market or window; type another below.

Item

Best hours to buy

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 Pacific · index 0.886 · typical 1g 19s 55c

Best hours to sell

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

10:00 to 13:00 Pacific · index 1.143 · typical 3g 45s 3c

Spread after the 5% cut

+246%

buy at the cheap hours' lowest buyout, sell at the dear hours' typical price

Confidence

Too early

Too early to trust: the thinnest hour has 1 day of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Gloves of the Fangby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1g 53s 50c	1g 16s 75c	40	0.893	4
01:00	17:00	82s 50c	70s	52	1.014	2
02:00	18:00	1g 39s 33c	1g 8s 33c	40	0.811	3
03:00	19:00	86s 33c	78s	28	0.991	1
04:00	20:00	1g 33s	98s	31	0.855	3
05:00	21:00	84s 11c	76s 33c	27	0.999	3
06:00	22:00	86s 50c	70s	21	1.049	2
07:00	23:00	75s 50c	59s	31	0.916	2
08:00	00:00	76s 33c	68s	29	0.913	3
09:00	01:00	86s 33c	82s 33c	31	1.044	3
10:00	02:00	79s 50c	74s	39	0.952	2
11:00	03:00	1g 14s 50c	89s 50c	32	0.940	2
12:00	04:00	3g 86s 67c	3g 85s	14	1.003	3
13:00	05:00	5g 43s	5g 42s	19	1.062	2
14:00	06:00	3g 19s 25c	3g 12s 25c	18	0.982	4
15:00	07:00	5g 36s	5g 36s	10	0.996	2
16:00	08:00	79s	77s	32	1.007	1
17:00	09:00	79s	75s	26	1.010	1
18:00	10:00	3g 94s 83c	3g 88s 67c	21	1.162	3
19:00	11:00	3g 26s	3g 10s 25c	19	1.148	4
20:00	12:00	3g 14s 25c	3g 10s	14	1.120	4
21:00	13:00	94s 56c	84s 33c	30	1.063	3
22:00	14:00	88s 67c	79s 33c	37	1.009	3
23:00	15:00	86s 50c	74s 50c	49	1.063	2

Under 1.000 is a cheap hour to buy; over 1.000 a good hour to sell. Days counts how many days that hour was scanned in the window. The same figures as JSON: /v1/timing/forever.normal.horde.us/10413 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.991	1.028	4
01:00	17:00	1.004	1.005	3
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.030	4
03:00	19:00	1.006	1.060	2
04:00	20:00	0.986	1.128	4
05:00	21:00	0.988	1.185	4
06:00	22:00	0.989	1.081	3
07:00	23:00	0.981	1.300	3
08:00	00:00	0.974	1.290	3
09:00	01:00	1.212	1.051	3
10:00	02:00	1.002	1.214	2
11:00	03:00	1.044	0.967	3
12:00	04:00	0.989	0.991	3
13:00	05:00	1.026	0.877	2
14:00	06:00	0.983	0.884	4
15:00	07:00	0.957	0.855	2
16:00	08:00	0.992	0.839	1
17:00	09:00	0.978	0.854	1
18:00	10:00	0.953	0.903	3
19:00	11:00	0.983	0.798	4
20:00	12:00	1.004	0.738	4
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.935	3
22:00	14:00	0.988	0.967	3
23:00	15:00	0.982	1.019	2

Each hour is indexed against the 24 hours around it, item by item across the market's largest positions, then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. For the day-of-week pattern, see market structure.

▸How this is worked out

Every hourly price is divided by the same item's average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting over the month does not make one end of the day look dear. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest; the spread buys at the cheap window's lowest buyout and sells at the dear window's typical price less the cut. Forever's history restarts at launch, so a live market's pattern never includes beta scans.

Common questions

What is the best time of day to buy and sell Gloves of the Fang?: On Normal Horde US, Gloves of the Fang is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 246% after the 5 percent cut.
How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?: Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.
How much history does the pattern need?: Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning Normal Horde US through the night fills the gaps.