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 Horde 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 Horde US, Drakewing Bands is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 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 109% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Horde US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/horde/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

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 Pacific · index 0.665 · typical 25s 81c

Best hours to sell

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 Pacific · index 1.189 · typical 48s 67c

Spread after the 5% cut

+109%

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.

Drakewing Bandsby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	39s 33c	26s 67c	21	0.996	3
01:00	17:00	41s 75c	25s	20	1.058	2
02:00	18:00	64s	55s 67c	15	1.124	3
03:00	19:00	30s	25s	30	0.845	1
04:00	20:00	57s 67c	54s	18	0.986	3
05:00	21:00	28s 64c	23s	23	0.734	3
06:00	22:00	23s 75c	22s 50c	13	0.567	2
07:00	23:00	27s	23s 50c	26	0.733	2
08:00	00:00	26s 67c	20s 33c	19	0.695	3
09:00	01:00	36s 50c	19s 50c	19	0.952	2
10:00	02:00	37s	19s 50c	13	0.966	2
11:00	03:00	49s 50c	37s 50c	7	0.952	2
12:00	04:00	37s	25s	4	0.880	2
13:00	05:00	49s	49s	4	1.082	1
14:00	06:00	49s	39s	6	1.078	3
15:00	07:00	48s	38s	6	1.358	1
16:00	08:00	49s	49s	8	1.095	1
17:00	09:00	49s	38s	13	1.114	1
18:00	10:00	46s 50c	39s	15	1.179	2
19:00	11:00	46s	45s 67c	14	1.153	3
20:00	12:00	47s 67c	41s 33c	13	1.219	3
21:00	13:00	45s 22c	39s	19	1.137	3
22:00	14:00	39s 33c	30s 67c	23	0.988	3
23:00	15:00	44s	25s	21	1.108	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.horde.us/12999 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.991	1.028	4
01:00	17:00	1.004	1.005	3
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.030	4
03:00	19:00	1.006	1.060	2
04:00	20:00	0.986	1.128	4
05:00	21:00	0.988	1.185	4
06:00	22:00	0.989	1.081	3
07:00	23:00	0.981	1.300	3
08:00	00:00	0.974	1.290	3
09:00	01:00	1.212	1.051	3
10:00	02:00	1.002	1.214	2
11:00	03:00	1.044	0.967	3
12:00	04:00	0.989	0.991	3
13:00	05:00	1.026	0.877	2
14:00	06:00	0.983	0.884	4
15:00	07:00	0.957	0.855	2
16:00	08:00	0.992	0.839	1
17:00	09:00	0.978	0.854	1
18:00	10:00	0.953	0.903	3
19:00	11:00	0.983	0.798	4
20:00	12:00	1.004	0.738	4
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.935	3
22:00	14:00	0.988	0.967	3
23:00	15:00	0.982	1.019	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 Drakewing Bands?: On Normal Horde US, Drakewing Bands is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 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 109% 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 Horde US through the night fills the gaps.