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, River Pride Choker is cheapest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 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 102% 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

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 CET · index 0.833 · typical 4g 63s 72c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 1.167 · typical 8g 85s 41c

Spread after the 5% cut

+102%

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.

River Pride Chokerby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	3g 99s	3g 99s	6	0.999	1
01:00	02:00	8g 64s 73c	6g 77s	5	1.160	3
02:00	03:00	7g 72s 50c	6g 92s 75c	8	1.133	4
03:00	04:00	10g 19s	8g 44s	6	1.208	2
04:00	05:00	5g 63s 67c	5g 50s 33c	11	1.039	3
05:00	06:00	7g 82s 22c	6g 55s 67c	10	1.122	3
06:00	07:00	7g 31s 67c	6g 92s 67c	8	1.076	3
07:00	08:00	6g 17s 50c	5g 97s	10	1.020	4
08:00	09:00	6g 7s 50c	5g 98s 75c	10	1.014	4
09:00	10:00	6g 7s	5g 85s 75c	11	1.014	4
10:00	11:00	5g 98s 63c	4g 86s 50c	12	1.002	4
11:00	12:00	6g 59s 21c	4g 80s 25c	14	1.186	4
12:00	13:00	5g 19s	4g 8s 50c	20	0.947	2
13:00	14:00	5g 75s 67c	4g 17s	15	0.910	3
14:00	15:00	5g 75s 33c	3g 90s 33c	16	0.925	3
15:00	16:00	5g 74s 67c	3g 87s	16	0.937	3
16:00	17:00	7g 52s 88c	5g 90s 25c	12	0.974	4
17:00	18:00	5g 51s 83c	4g 14s 33c	14	0.929	3
18:00	19:00	4g 62s	3g 93s	14	0.815	3
19:00	20:00	4g 62s 13c	4g 15s 33c	12	0.829	3
20:00	21:00	4g 67s 2c	4g 43s 33c	8	0.856	3
21:00	22:00	7g 60s	4g	3	0.977	1
22:00	23:00	7g 83s 17c	7g 23s 67c	10	0.977	3
23:00	00:00	5g 27s 50c	4g 43s 67c	9	0.954	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/13087 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.937	1.088	2
01:00	02:00	0.974	1.030	5
02:00	03:00	1.003	1.044	5
03:00	04:00	1.026	1.003	2
04:00	05:00	1.019	0.931	4
05:00	06:00	1.035	0.837	4
06:00	07:00	1.020	0.813	5
07:00	08:00	1.042	0.838	6
08:00	09:00	1.046	0.832	6
09:00	10:00	1.029	0.903	6
10:00	11:00	1.035	0.974	6
11:00	12:00	0.994	1.064	6
12:00	13:00	1.005	0.899	3
13:00	14:00	0.998	0.967	4
14:00	15:00	0.992	0.995	4
15:00	16:00	0.984	1.035	4
16:00	17:00	0.977	1.075	5
17:00	18:00	0.977	1.117	4
18:00	19:00	0.967	1.157	3
19:00	20:00	0.995	1.083	4
20:00	21:00	0.956	1.187	3
21:00	22:00	0.962	1.043	1
22:00	23:00	0.982	1.102	3
23:00	00:00	1.047	0.981	4

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 River Pride Choker?: On PvP Alliance EU, River Pride Choker is cheapest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 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 102% 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.