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, Greenstone Circle is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 CET) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 CET). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.

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

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

10:00 to 13:00 CET · index 0.775 · typical 2g 23s 14c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 CET · index 1.095 · typical 2g 10s

Spread after the 5% cut

-2%

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.

Greenstone Circleby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	2g 2s 50c	1g 65s 50c	7	0.986	2
02:00	03:00	2g 2s 50c	1g 15s 50c	7	1.045	2
03:00	04:00	2g 2s 50c	1g 15s 50c	6	1.054	2
04:00	05:00	1g 84s 50c	75s	15	1.137	2
05:00	06:00	2g 5s	1g 55s	3	1.002	1
06:00	07:00	1g 61s 33c	1g 1s 67c	10	0.931	3
07:00	08:00	1g 68s	1g 1s 67c	8	0.968	3
08:00	09:00	1g 53s	1g 33c	9	0.881	3
09:00	10:00	2g 25s 75c	1g 99s 75c	9	0.813	4
10:00	11:00	2g 11s	1g 85s 75c	10	0.750	4
11:00	12:00	2g 32s 67c	2g 24s 33c	5	0.763	3
12:00	13:00	1g 24s 67c	75s	14	0.924	1
13:00	14:00	2g 82s	2g 57s 33c	6	1.086	3
14:00	15:00	1g 74s	1g 37s	10	1.090	2
15:00	16:00	1g 74s	1g 37s	9	1.109	2
16:00	17:00	2g 48s 67c	2g 24s	7	1.066	3
17:00	18:00	1g 71s 50c	1g 37s	11	1.094	2
18:00	19:00	1g 65s 84c	1g 37s	12	1.051	2
19:00	20:00	1g 64s 50c	1g 25s	14	1.030	2
20:00	21:00	1g 52s 36c	1g 12s	18	0.943	2
21:00	22:00	1g 89s 40c	1g 50s	7	1.133	1
22:00	23:00	2g 43s 89c	2g 7s 33c	12	1.151	3
23:00	00:00	1g 60s	1g 12s	20	0.994	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/11997 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 Greenstone Circle?: On PvP Alliance EU, Greenstone Circle is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 CET) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 CET). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.
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.