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, Pattern: Raptor Hide Harness is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET) and dearest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 71% 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

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 0.800 · typical 50s 87c

Best hours to sell

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 CET · index 1.190 · typical 68s 67c

Spread after the 5% cut

+71%

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.

Pattern: Raptor Hide Harnessby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	70s 10c	63s 50c	17	0.907	2
02:00	03:00	70s	64s 50c	14	0.930	2
03:00	04:00	69s 25c	63s	13	0.943	2
04:00	05:00	39s	27s	19	0.904	1
05:00	06:00	99s	99s	8	1.047	1
06:00	07:00	68s 67c	68s 67c	8	1.205	3
07:00	08:00	68s 67c	68s 33c	7	1.189	3
08:00	09:00	68s 67c	65s	8	1.176	3
09:00	10:00	65s 33c	63s 67c	10	1.089	3
10:00	11:00	65s	63s	13	1.112	3
11:00	12:00	62s 25c	55s 50c	15	1.080	2
12:00	13:00	24s 67c	21s	17	1.024	1
13:00	14:00	73s	70s	10	1.036	3
14:00	15:00	60s	53s	17	1.071	2
15:00	16:00	59s 63c	49s	18	1.092	2
16:00	17:00	70s	65s	13	1.061	3
17:00	18:00	54s 84c	44s	19	1.065	2
18:00	19:00	49s 34c	44s	17	0.938	2
19:00	20:00	51s 84c	29s	18	0.948	2
20:00	21:00	45s	26s	24	0.785	2
21:00	22:00	67s	40s	26	1.048	1
22:00	23:00	52s 44c	49s 67c	19	0.717	3
23:00	00:00	33s 17c	24s 50c	20	0.634	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/13287 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.996	1.109	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.050	4
02:00	03:00	1.044	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.037	1.005	3
05:00	06:00	1.065	0.787	2
06:00	07:00	1.026	0.845	5
07:00	08:00	1.040	0.797	5
08:00	09:00	1.022	0.854	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.906	5
10:00	11:00	1.044	0.920	5
11:00	12:00	0.998	0.902	4
12:00	13:00	0.985	0.879	2
13:00	14:00	0.991	1.004	3
14:00	15:00	0.989	1.018	3
15:00	16:00	0.984	1.066	3
16:00	17:00	0.968	1.087	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.104	3
18:00	19:00	0.959	1.143	2
19:00	20:00	0.995	1.027	3
20:00	21:00	0.950	1.170	2
21:00	22:00	0.944	1.085	1
22:00	23:00	0.949	1.148	3
23:00	00:00	1.000	1.086	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 Pattern: Raptor Hide Harness?: On PvP Alliance EU, Pattern: Raptor Hide Harness is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET) and dearest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 71% 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.