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, Small Glowing Shard is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 37% 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

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 CET · index 0.894 · typical 65s 53c

Best hours to sell

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 CET · index 1.074 · typical 89s 14c

Spread after the 5% cut

+37%

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.

Small Glowing Shardby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	2g	2g	6	0.727	1
01:00	02:00	97s 26c	88s 85c	112	0.981	3
02:00	03:00	35s 85c	27s 77c	177	1.054	2
03:00	04:00	35s 60c	28s 27c	166	1.078	2
04:00	05:00	14s 75c	14s 52c	140	0.985	2
05:00	06:00	1g 27s	1g 17s 50c	60	1.093	2
06:00	07:00	70s 59c	66s 1c	84	1.068	4
07:00	08:00	69s 84c	64s 38c	82	1.061	4
08:00	09:00	67s 34c	64s 1c	83	1.033	4
09:00	10:00	65s 88c	63s 74c	95	1.000	4
10:00	11:00	64s 56c	61s 62c	81	0.999	4
11:00	12:00	81s 50c	57s 98c	94	1.002	3
12:00	13:00	15s 70c	14s 95c	139	1.031	1
13:00	14:00	77s 85c	50s 63c	113	0.989	3
14:00	15:00	17s 28c	15s 50c	158	0.850	2
15:00	16:00	17s 7c	14s 90c	157	0.859	2
16:00	17:00	1g 62s 25c	1g 55s 72c	85	0.975	4
17:00	18:00	1g 77s 85c	1g 76s 63c	84	1.068	3
18:00	19:00	16s 48c	15s 99c	114	0.896	2
19:00	20:00	1g 78s 65c	1g 76s 31c	67	1.202	3
20:00	21:00	16s 46c	15s	119	0.968	2
21:00	22:00	17s 98c	16s 88c	149	0.943	1
22:00	23:00	38s 88c	28s 23c	116	0.988	3
23:00	00:00	1g 43s 87c	76s 56c	77	1.150	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/11138 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 Small Glowing Shard?: On PvP Alliance EU, Small Glowing Shard is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 37% 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.