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, Jet Chain is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 100% 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

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 CET · index 0.701 · typical 1g 85s

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 1.290 · typical 3g 89s

Spread after the 5% cut

+100%

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.

Jet Chainby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	3g 89s	3g 60s	9	1.307	1
02:00	03:00	3g 89s	1g	10	1.288	1
03:00	04:00	3g 89s	3g 60s	8	1.275	1
04:00	05:00	2g 94s 50c	2g 30s	6	1.111	2
06:00	07:00	2g 80s	99s 50c	5	1.094	2
07:00	08:00	1g 49s 50c	99s 50c	4	0.657	2
08:00	09:00	1g 49s 50c	95s	5	0.656	2
09:00	10:00	2g	99s 50c	5	0.820	2
10:00	11:00	2g 80s	1g	5	1.090	2
11:00	12:00	2g 53s	1g 36s	4	1.006	3
12:00	13:00	4g 20s	2g	5	1.463	1
13:00	14:00	3g 29s	2g 4s	4	1.178	2
14:00	15:00	2g 53s 50c	2g 4s	5	0.909	2
15:00	16:00	2g 40s 13c	2g 4s	6	0.860	2
16:00	17:00	2g 74s 25c	2g	13	1.032	1
17:00	18:00	2g	2g	11	0.774	1
18:00	19:00	1g 77s 50c	1g 77s 50c	7	0.652	2
19:00	20:00	1g 77s 50c	1g 77s 50c	5	0.677	2
20:00	21:00	2g 19s 50c	1g 99s 50c	6	0.833	2
21:00	22:00	2g 94s 50c	1g 99s	4	1.091	1
22:00	23:00	3g 4s 9c	2g 44s 50c	6	1.130	2
23:00	00:00	2g 94s 50c	2g 30s	6	1.098	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/12030 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 Jet Chain?: On PvP Alliance EU, Jet Chain is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 100% 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.