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, Meadow Ring is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 232% 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

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 CET · index 0.847 · typical 83s 31c

Best hours to sell

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 1.351 · typical 1g 66s 50c

Spread after the 5% cut

+232%

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.

Meadow Ringby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	2g 50s	1g	6	1.833	1
01:00	02:00	1g 23s 7c	57s	30	1.089	3
02:00	03:00	93s	35s 50c	30	0.981	2
03:00	04:00	90s 25c	48s	28	0.956	2
04:00	05:00	1g 10s	45s	22	1.153	2
05:00	06:00	1g 18s 25c	70s	12	1.066	2
06:00	07:00	91s 69c	57s 50c	18	0.869	4
07:00	08:00	1g 6s 69c	57s 25c	15	1.034	4
08:00	09:00	83s 15c	56s 25c	17	0.798	4
09:00	10:00	87s	51s	14	0.865	5
10:00	11:00	1g 3s 13c	53s 50c	19	1.026	4
11:00	12:00	1g 8s 17c	56s	20	1.062	4
12:00	13:00	1g 33c	44s	23	0.974	1
13:00	14:00	1g 3s 33c	60s 33c	23	1.014	3
14:00	15:00	99s	52s 50c	31	1.015	2
15:00	16:00	98s	71s 33c	20	0.873	3
16:00	17:00	94s 69c	66s	22	0.867	4
17:00	18:00	97s 23c	56s 33c	21	0.880	3
18:00	19:00	99s 50c	49s	32	1.016	2
19:00	20:00	92s 14c	51s 50c	31	0.935	2
20:00	21:00	85s	51s 50c	38	0.871	2
21:00	22:00	72s 80c	40s	38	0.735	1
22:00	23:00	91s 67c	48s 67c	32	0.957	3
23:00	00:00	1g 26s 44c	64s	22	1.130	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/12006 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.999	1.123	1
01:00	02:00	1.013	1.062	4
02:00	03:00	1.056	1.023	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	1.017	2
04:00	05:00	1.041	1.000	3
05:00	06:00	1.055	0.794	2
06:00	07:00	1.023	0.843	5
07:00	08:00	1.042	0.789	5
08:00	09:00	1.026	0.838	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.882	5
10:00	11:00	1.031	0.913	5
11:00	12:00	0.983	1.040	5
12:00	13:00	0.977	0.873	2
13:00	14:00	0.985	1.003	3
14:00	15:00	0.982	1.004	3
15:00	16:00	0.975	1.048	3
16:00	17:00	0.966	1.074	4
17:00	18:00	0.962	1.087	3
18:00	19:00	0.952	1.128	2
19:00	20:00	1.002	1.025	3
20:00	21:00	0.962	1.153	2
21:00	22:00	0.954	1.066	1
22:00	23:00	0.961	1.143	3
23:00	00:00	1.005	1.075	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 Meadow Ring?: On PvP Alliance EU, Meadow Ring is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 232% 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.