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 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 PvP Alliance US, Ritual Sandals is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 223% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/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

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 Pacific · index 0.694 · typical 28s 14c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 Pacific · index 1.956 · typical 59s 35c

Spread after the 5% cut

+223%

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 2 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Ritual Sandalsby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	56s 78c	19s 67c	13	1.636	3
01:00	17:00	57s 56c	10s	10	1.677	3
02:00	18:00	67s 50c	13s 50c	12	2.389	2
03:00	19:00	53s	13s 50c	13	1.802	2
04:00	20:00	30s	19s 67c	17	0.802	3
05:00	21:00	47s 25c	17s 25c	14	1.109	4
06:00	22:00	36s 81c	17s	14	0.879	4
07:00	23:00	31s 25c	16s 75c	17	0.773	4
08:00	00:00	26s 67c	18s	17	0.651	3
09:00	01:00	26s 50c	17s 67c	17	0.660	3
10:00	02:00	42s 40c	32s 60c	11	0.788	5
11:00	03:00	26s 33c	10s 33c	16	0.693	3
12:00	04:00	34s 50c	23s 50c	10	0.702	2
13:00	05:00	33s	14s	9	0.865	3
14:00	06:00	27s	13s	9	0.629	4
15:00	07:00	55s 67c	46s 67c	7	0.914	3
16:00	08:00	49s 25c	37s 75c	8	0.907	4
17:00	09:00	44s 58c	13s 75c	9	0.849	4
18:00	10:00	55s 67c	14s 67c	11	0.985	3
19:00	11:00	49s	14s 33c	11	0.862	3
20:00	12:00	36s 83c	25s 33c	13	0.775	3
21:00	13:00	49s 34c	22s 50c	10	0.988	2
22:00	14:00	42s 33c	20s	14	0.876	3
23:00	15:00	33s 17c	16s 50c	15	0.788	4

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.us/14129 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.025	0.959	4
01:00	17:00	1.082	0.840	3
02:00	18:00	0.993	1.061	3
03:00	19:00	1.011	1.016	3
04:00	20:00	0.995	1.074	4
05:00	21:00	1.000	1.092	5
06:00	22:00	1.020	1.143	4
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.194	5
08:00	00:00	1.011	1.116	4
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.133	4
10:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	5
11:00	03:00	0.999	1.090	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.987	2
13:00	05:00	0.990	0.984	3
14:00	06:00	0.995	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	0.973	0.963	3
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.938	4
17:00	09:00	0.974	0.888	4
18:00	10:00	0.977	0.935	3
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.902	3
20:00	12:00	0.984	0.913	3
21:00	13:00	0.992	0.839	2
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.927	3
23:00	15:00	1.003	0.962	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 Ritual Sandals?: On PvP Alliance US, Ritual Sandals is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 223% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.