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, Clay Ring is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific) and dearest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 185% 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

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 Pacific · index 0.869 · typical 1g 11s 11c

Best hours to sell

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 Pacific · index 1.168 · typical 1g 93s 48c

Spread after the 5% cut

+185%

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.

Clay Ringby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1g 30s 96c	87s 50c	21	0.962	4
01:00	17:00	1g 41s 33c	1g 4s 33c	19	0.951	3
02:00	18:00	1g 30s 75c	77s 75c	24	0.964	4
03:00	19:00	1g 24s 50c	76s 50c	25	0.909	4
04:00	20:00	1g 32s 33c	83s 33c	23	0.955	3
05:00	21:00	1g 32s 67c	73s	24	0.979	3
06:00	22:00	1g 22s 50c	69s 75c	24	0.940	4
07:00	23:00	1g 40s	77s 50c	17	0.972	2
08:00	00:00	1g	55s	19	1.002	1
09:00	01:00	1g 8s 34c	63s	20	0.822	2
10:00	02:00	1g 12s 50c	63s	19	0.883	2
11:00	03:00	1g 12s 50c	67s 50c	20	0.903	2
13:00	05:00	1g	49s	19	1.009	1
14:00	06:00	1g 18s	61s 33c	16	0.991	3
15:00	07:00	1g 85s 44c	1g 36s 67c	9	1.162	3
16:00	08:00	2g 26s 25c	1g 77s 50c	10	1.233	2
17:00	09:00	1g 68s 75c	1g 18s 75c	13	1.109	4
18:00	10:00	1g 60s 83c	1g 14s 50c	13	1.061	4
19:00	11:00	1g 67s 50c	1g 28s 67c	13	1.061	3
20:00	12:00	1g 68s 33c	1g 33s	19	1.061	3
21:00	13:00	1g 71s 56c	1g 38s	18	1.099	3
22:00	14:00	1g 56s 63c	94s 75c	18	1.080	4
23:00	15:00	1g 49s 84c	97s 50c	15	0.892	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/11993 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 Clay Ring?: On Normal Alliance US, Clay Ring is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific) and dearest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 185% 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.