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, Magefist Gloves is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 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 117% 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

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 Pacific · index 0.877 · typical 92s 97c

Best hours to sell

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 Pacific · index 1.259 · typical 1g 82s 82c

Spread after the 5% cut

+117%

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.

Magefist Glovesby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	82s 25c	76s 50c	20	0.894	4
01:00	17:00	94s 33c	89s	15	0.899	3
02:00	18:00	81s 38c	73s 25c	22	0.907	4
03:00	19:00	78s	71s 75c	22	0.886	4
04:00	20:00	80s 67c	73s 33c	13	0.911	3
05:00	21:00	80s 44c	64s 67c	11	0.960	3
06:00	22:00	80s 50c	68s	18	1.069	4
07:00	23:00	77s 50c	72s 50c	20	0.856	2
08:00	00:00	49s	45s	11	0.990	1
09:00	01:00	74s 50c	72s	16	0.898	2
10:00	02:00	74s 50c	64s 50c	14	0.910	2
11:00	03:00	74s 50c	62s 50c	15	0.919	2
12:00	04:00	4g	4g	1	1.484	1
13:00	05:00	49s 50c	49s	4	1.017	1
14:00	06:00	1g 51s 25c	1g 50s	11	1.123	4
15:00	07:00	1g 69s 22c	1g 68s 33c	8	1.227	3
16:00	08:00	2g 29s 25c	2g 29s	6	1.366	2
17:00	09:00	1g 50s	1g 36s 75c	15	1.185	4
18:00	10:00	99s 58c	82s 50c	17	0.980	4
19:00	11:00	99s 67c	98s 67c	13	0.946	3
20:00	12:00	1g 11s 67c	98s 33c	16	0.945	3
21:00	13:00	94s 67c	91s	20	0.870	3
22:00	14:00	84s 25c	76s 25c	19	0.915	4
23:00	15:00	1g	73s	13	0.845	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/12977 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 Magefist Gloves?: On Normal Alliance US, Magefist Gloves is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 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 117% 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.