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 PvP Alliance EU 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 PvP Alliance EU, Tough Condor Meat is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 118% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Alliance EU. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/alliance/eu

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

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 0.913 · typical 16s 67c

Best hours to sell

10:00 to 13:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 CET · index 1.271 · typical 32s 20c

Spread after the 5% cut

+118%

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.

Tough Condor Meatby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	19s 60c	15s 55c	89	0.830	1
01:00	02:00	15s 22c	12s 62c	126	0.967	3
02:00	03:00	12s 61c	11s	142	0.955	2
03:00	04:00	12s 61c	10s 45c	141	0.958	2
04:00	05:00	11s 25c	8s 93c	212	0.958	2
05:00	06:00	15s 48c	12s	94	0.942	2
06:00	07:00	13s 38c	10s 6c	143	0.965	4
07:00	08:00	13s 38c	10s 47c	138	0.967	4
08:00	09:00	12s 92c	9s 24c	122	0.943	4
09:00	10:00	25s 85c	24s 41c	66	1.096	5
10:00	11:00	29s 45c	24s 76c	38	1.303	5
11:00	12:00	31s 36c	19s 71c	31	1.279	4
12:00	13:00	35s 78c	25s 39c	42	1.231	2
13:00	14:00	13s 95c	12s 99c	91	0.990	3
14:00	15:00	19s 12c	14s 90c	101	0.954	3
15:00	16:00	17s 85c	15s 11c	88	0.927	3
16:00	17:00	16s 70c	14s 17c	81	0.911	4
17:00	18:00	17s 31c	12s 99c	94	0.925	3
18:00	19:00	13s 27c	11s 70c	110	1.059	2
19:00	20:00	16s 34c	13s 43c	104	0.944	3
20:00	21:00	12s 60c	11s 28c	115	1.019	2
21:00	22:00	12s 71c	9s 90c	166	0.957	1
22:00	23:00	12s 78c	11s 29c	114	0.980	3
23:00	00:00	15s 19c	13s 86c	102	0.941	3

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.pvp.alliance.eu/1080 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.996	1.109	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.050	4
02:00	03:00	1.044	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.037	1.005	3
05:00	06:00	1.065	0.787	2
06:00	07:00	1.026	0.845	5
07:00	08:00	1.040	0.797	5
08:00	09:00	1.022	0.854	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.906	5
10:00	11:00	1.044	0.920	5
11:00	12:00	0.998	0.902	4
12:00	13:00	0.985	0.879	2
13:00	14:00	0.991	1.004	3
14:00	15:00	0.989	1.018	3
15:00	16:00	0.984	1.066	3
16:00	17:00	0.968	1.087	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.104	3
18:00	19:00	0.959	1.143	2
19:00	20:00	0.995	1.027	3
20:00	21:00	0.950	1.170	2
21:00	22:00	0.944	1.085	1
22:00	23:00	0.949	1.148	3
23:00	00:00	1.000	1.086	3

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 Tough Condor Meat?: On PvP Alliance EU, Tough Condor Meat is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 118% 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 PvP Alliance EU through the night fills the gaps.