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 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 Normal Alliance US, Quartz Ring is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific) and dearest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 419% after the 5 percent cut.

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

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 Pacific · index 0.781 · typical 1g 3s 8c

Best hours to sell

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

04:00 to 07:00 Pacific · index 1.754 · typical 3g 70s 75c

Spread after the 5% cut

+419%

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.

Quartz Ringby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	99s 75c	63s 75c	17	0.820	4
01:00	17:00	1g	53s	12	0.875	3
02:00	18:00	1g 8s	63s 25c	16	0.916	4
03:00	19:00	1g 8s	73s 75c	17	0.942	4
04:00	20:00	1g 20s	67s 67c	20	1.030	3
05:00	21:00	1g 3s 33c	60s	25	0.871	3
06:00	22:00	88s 88c	57s 75c	24	0.782	4
07:00	23:00	1g	63s	26	0.872	2
08:00	00:00	1g	45s	33	0.897	1
09:00	01:00	1g	58s	28	0.903	2
10:00	02:00	99s 75c	58s	27	0.902	2
11:00	03:00	99s 50c	60s 50c	23	0.918	2
12:00	04:00	8g	8g	1	3.047	1
13:00	05:00	1g	49s	15	0.861	1
14:00	06:00	2g 12s 25c	1g 12s 75c	10	1.353	4
15:00	07:00	1g 31s 44c	1g 24s 33c	12	0.922	3
16:00	08:00	1g 41s 25c	1g 37s	9	0.888	2
17:00	09:00	1g 25s 38c	93s 25c	15	0.939	4
18:00	10:00	1g 19s 50c	88s 50c	15	0.901	4
19:00	11:00	1g 40s 67c	1g 2s 67c	15	0.993	3
20:00	12:00	1g 44s 33c	78s	14	1.027	3
21:00	13:00	1g	68s	16	0.774	3
22:00	14:00	1g 19s 25c	64s 50c	15	0.905	4
23:00	15:00	90s	71s	15	0.664	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.alliance.us/11965 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.999	1.031	4
01:00	17:00	0.992	1.055	4
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.119	5
03:00	19:00	0.998	1.158	4
04:00	20:00	0.994	1.182	4
05:00	21:00	1.007	1.211	4
06:00	22:00	1.014	1.255	5
07:00	23:00	0.955	0.998	3
08:00	00:00	0.968	1.133	1
09:00	01:00	0.966	1.140	2
10:00	02:00	0.974	1.077	3
11:00	03:00	0.991	1.040	3
12:00	04:00	1.105	0.795	1
13:00	05:00	0.985	0.943	1
14:00	06:00	1.009	0.896	4
15:00	07:00	1.000	0.848	3
16:00	08:00	1.046	0.809	2
17:00	09:00	0.999	0.833	4
18:00	10:00	0.990	0.847	4
19:00	11:00	1.018	0.869	3
20:00	12:00	0.982	0.936	3
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.947	3
22:00	14:00	1.028	0.908	4
23:00	15:00	0.994	0.970	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 Quartz Ring?: On Normal Alliance US, Quartz Ring is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific) and dearest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 419% 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 Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.