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, Killmaim is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 Pacific) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 379% 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

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 Pacific · index 0.724 · typical 1g 17s 50c

Best hours to sell

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 1.533 · typical 4g 79s 27c

Spread after the 5% cut

+379%

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.

Killmaimby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	3g 71s 50c	3g 40s	12	1.076	4
01:00	17:00	4g 31s	4g 23s 33c	14	0.982	3
02:00	18:00	3g 45s 50c	3g 36s 25c	13	0.909	4
03:00	19:00	3g 44s	2g 62s 25c	11	0.925	4
04:00	20:00	5g 27s	4g 23s 67c	11	1.696	3
05:00	21:00	5g 23s 67c	3g 56s 67c	14	1.690	3
06:00	22:00	3g 87s 13c	2g 51s	21	1.214	4
07:00	23:00	3g 86s	3g 85s	16	0.870	2
08:00	00:00	1g	98s	32	0.863	1
09:00	01:00	3g 50s	3g 48s	15	0.887	2
10:00	02:00	3g 49s 50c	3g 24s	17	0.910	2
11:00	03:00	3g 49s	1g 99s	17	0.930	2
13:00	05:00	98s	89s	18	1.031	1
14:00	06:00	2g 31s	1g 61s 67c	11	0.866	3
15:00	07:00	96s 50c	90s	11	0.841	2
16:00	08:00	95s	75s	9	0.628	1
17:00	09:00	1g 61s	1g 20s	11	0.703	3
18:00	10:00	1g 91s 56c	1g 69s 33c	9	1.002	3
19:00	11:00	1g 60s	1g 60s	7	1.151	2
20:00	12:00	1g 57s 50c	1g 37s 50c	9	0.652	2
21:00	13:00	1g 62s 50c	1g 37s 50c	6	0.683	2
22:00	14:00	1g 81s 67c	1g 31s	14	1.024	3
23:00	15:00	6g 1s	5g 41s	9	1.468	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/13016 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 Killmaim?: On Normal Alliance US, Killmaim is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 Pacific) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 379% 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.