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, Jacinth Circle is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET) and dearest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 138% 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

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 0.818 · typical 90s 6c

Best hours to sell

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 CET · index 1.159 · typical 1g 32s 75c

Spread after the 5% cut

+138%

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

Jacinth Circleby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	78s 90c	45s	15	0.705	2
02:00	03:00	1g 44s	75s	13	1.241	2
03:00	04:00	1g 46s 75c	75s	15	1.267	2
04:00	05:00	1g 7s 50c	46s	39	0.968	2
05:00	06:00	1g 13s 50c	87s	4	0.894	2
06:00	07:00	1g 11s 67c	36s 67c	25	0.990	3
07:00	08:00	1g 30s 17c	62s 67c	24	1.155	3
08:00	09:00	1g 7s 33c	62s 75c	18	0.909	4
09:00	10:00	1g 43s 63c	64s	19	1.183	4
10:00	11:00	1g 51s	60s 25c	18	1.236	4
11:00	12:00	1g 25s 44c	83s 33c	14	1.008	3
12:00	13:00	1g 35s	50s	30	1.131	1
13:00	14:00	1g 11s 67c	59s 67c	15	0.930	3
14:00	15:00	1g 22s	65s 50c	29	1.036	2
15:00	16:00	1g 22s 75c	61s 50c	31	1.052	2
16:00	17:00	1g 9s 42c	65s	24	0.905	3
17:00	18:00	1g 17s 50c	55s 50c	37	1.021	2
18:00	19:00	1g 13s	53s	37	0.996	2
19:00	20:00	1g 7s 80c	47s 50c	36	0.956	2
20:00	21:00	1g 7s 22c	50s	36	0.965	2
21:00	22:00	87s	60s	24	0.838	1
22:00	23:00	84s 50c	51s 67c	27	0.721	3
23:00	00:00	98s 67c	47s 50c	33	0.894	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.pvp.alliance.eu/11969 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 Jacinth Circle?: On PvP Alliance EU, Jacinth Circle is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET) and dearest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 138% 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.