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 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 PvP Alliance US, Lesser Astral Essence is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific) and dearest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 39% after the 5 percent cut.

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

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 Pacific · index 0.889 · typical 8s 94c

Best hours to sell

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 Pacific · index 1.241 · typical 11s 23c

Spread after the 5% cut

+39%

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 2 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Lesser Astral Essenceby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	9s 73c	9s 18c	48	1.033	3
01:00	17:00	9s 52c	5s 34c	41	1.540	2
02:00	18:00	5s 35c	4s 99c	70	0.886	2
03:00	19:00	5s 38c	5s 20c	59	0.892	2
04:00	20:00	8s 73c	8s 49c	40	0.958	3
05:00	21:00	8s 67c	8s 23c	69	0.934	4
06:00	22:00	15s 25c	9s 45c	68	1.696	4
07:00	23:00	9s 17c	9s 15c	89	1.045	4
08:00	00:00	9s 28c	8s 11c	111	0.981	3
09:00	01:00	10s 70c	9s 75c	81	1.003	4
10:00	02:00	9s 80c	9s 9c	87	1.005	5
11:00	03:00	8s 26c	7s 92c	108	0.936	3
12:00	04:00	13s 50c	13s 49c	48	0.964	2
13:00	05:00	10s 79c	10s 74c	43	0.957	3
14:00	06:00	9s 79c	9s 16c	83	0.943	4
15:00	07:00	8s 72c	7s 87c	83	0.928	3
16:00	08:00	9s 35c	8s 65c	75	0.909	4
17:00	09:00	9s 32c	8s 31c	69	0.915	4
18:00	10:00	10s 61c	8s 27c	80	0.889	3
19:00	11:00	10s 39c	8s 60c	76	0.934	3
20:00	12:00	7s 95c	6s 86c	60	0.884	3
21:00	13:00	9s 13c	7s 25c	60	0.881	2
22:00	14:00	9s 75c	8s 93c	56	0.903	3
23:00	15:00	9s 92c	9s 61c	65	0.985	4

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.us/10998 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.025	0.959	4
01:00	17:00	1.082	0.840	3
02:00	18:00	0.993	1.061	3
03:00	19:00	1.011	1.016	3
04:00	20:00	0.995	1.074	4
05:00	21:00	1.000	1.092	5
06:00	22:00	1.020	1.143	4
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.194	5
08:00	00:00	1.011	1.116	4
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.133	4
10:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	5
11:00	03:00	0.999	1.090	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.987	2
13:00	05:00	0.990	0.984	3
14:00	06:00	0.995	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	0.973	0.963	3
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.938	4
17:00	09:00	0.974	0.888	4
18:00	10:00	0.977	0.935	3
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.902	3
20:00	12:00	0.984	0.913	3
21:00	13:00	0.992	0.839	2
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.927	3
23:00	15:00	1.003	0.962	4

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 Lesser Astral Essence?: On PvP Alliance US, Lesser Astral Essence is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific) and dearest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 39% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.