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 Cord is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 416% 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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 CET · index 0.768 · typical 15s 33c

Best hours to sell

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 CET · index 1.286 · typical 23s 55c

Spread after the 5% cut

+416%

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 Cordby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	20s	9s	29	1.053	1
01:00	02:00	19s 33c	5s 67c	45	0.995	3
02:00	03:00	17s 50c	4s 50c	56	0.804	2
03:00	04:00	17s 50c	4s 50c	54	0.815	2
04:00	05:00	11s	4s	70	0.685	2
05:00	06:00	19s 50c	6s	28	0.988	2
06:00	07:00	13s 50c	5s 50c	40	0.767	4
07:00	08:00	14s	5s 25c	37	0.796	4
08:00	09:00	14s 25c	5s 25c	40	0.821	4
09:00	10:00	13s	5s 25c	36	0.717	4
10:00	11:00	20s 5c	9s 80c	30	1.073	5
11:00	12:00	19s 33c	9s 60c	36	1.028	5
12:00	13:00	26s 59c	16s	29	1.408	2
13:00	14:00	19s 7c	5s	48	1.134	3
14:00	15:00	25s	11s 67c	39	1.316	3
15:00	16:00	21s 67c	6s 67c	47	1.125	3
16:00	17:00	16s 56c	6s	52	0.870	4
17:00	18:00	19s 67c	9s 67c	59	1.014	3
18:00	19:00	20s	5s	74	1.205	2
19:00	20:00	20s 53c	8s	50	1.109	3
20:00	21:00	17s 86c	4s 50c	75	1.107	2
21:00	22:00	16s	5s	51	1.109	1
22:00	23:00	19s 44c	4s 33c	68	1.051	3
23:00	00:00	17s 78c	5s 67c	53	1.009	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/14173 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 Cord?: On PvP Alliance EU, Buccaneer's Cord is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 416% 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.