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, Buccaneer's Bracers is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 271% 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

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 CET · index 0.827 · typical 12s 27c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 CET · index 1.192 · typical 20s 17c

Spread after the 5% cut

+271%

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.

Buccaneer's Bracersby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	13s 50c	7s	35	1.029	1
01:00	02:00	13s 47c	4s 33c	50	0.851	3
02:00	03:00	18s	3s 50c	47	1.045	2
03:00	04:00	17s	3s 50c	46	0.971	2
04:00	05:00	14s 50c	4s	63	0.897	2
05:00	06:00	10s 75c	6s 50c	21	0.807	2
06:00	07:00	11s 56c	5s	32	0.778	4
07:00	08:00	14s 20c	8s 20c	23	0.900	5
08:00	09:00	17s 4c	7s 60c	23	1.089	5
09:00	10:00	15s 50c	4s 50c	32	1.056	4
10:00	11:00	17s 75c	5s	25	1.354	4
11:00	12:00	17s 61c	4s 67c	34	1.115	3
12:00	13:00	20s	4s	53	1.045	1
13:00	14:00	17s 60c	4s 33c	47	1.139	3
14:00	15:00	21s 67c	10s 67c	35	1.233	3
15:00	16:00	21s 25c	9s	37	1.205	3
16:00	17:00	16s 63c	7s 25c	43	1.044	4
17:00	18:00	18s 40c	7s 33c	42	1.048	3
18:00	19:00	15s	4s 50c	65	0.841	2
19:00	20:00	17s	6s 67c	42	1.007	3
20:00	21:00	17s 25c	4s 50c	66	0.979	2
21:00	22:00	14s	4s	50	0.711	1
22:00	23:00	13s 89c	3s 67c	65	0.866	3
23:00	00:00	14s 89c	5s	55	0.988	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/14166 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 Buccaneer's Bracers?: On PvP Alliance EU, Buccaneer's Bracers is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 271% 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.