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, Gnoll Skull Basher is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 CET) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 82% 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

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

08:00 to 11:00 CET · index 0.945 · typical 19s

Best hours to sell

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 1.188 · typical 33s 77c

Spread after the 5% cut

+82%

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.

Gnoll Skull Basherby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	43s 25c	31s 50c	33	1.298	2
01:00	02:00	27s 90c	23s	33	1.099	4
02:00	03:00	14s 75c	13s 75c	34	0.965	4
03:00	04:00	16s	14s	35	0.956	2
04:00	05:00	14s 33c	13s	34	0.986	3
05:00	06:00	23s 75c	21s 75c	26	1.018	4
06:00	07:00	22s 56c	22s	21	0.987	4
07:00	08:00	20s 60c	19s 20c	21	0.983	5
08:00	09:00	18s 20c	17s 20c	22	0.925	5
09:00	10:00	18s 20c	16s 40c	23	0.926	5
10:00	11:00	19s 20c	16s 40c	19	0.996	5
11:00	12:00	18s 73c	16s	25	0.981	5
12:00	13:00	13s 89c	13s 33c	31	0.988	3
13:00	14:00	17s	15s 20c	34	0.944	5
14:00	15:00	15s 25c	14s 75c	34	1.031	4
15:00	16:00	15s 33c	15s 33c	35	0.998	3
16:00	17:00	16s 75c	15s 50c	39	0.929	4
17:00	18:00	15s 33c	14s 67c	41	1.005	3
18:00	19:00	15s 33c	15s	44	1.008	3
19:00	20:00	17s 75c	17s 25c	28	0.874	4
20:00	21:00	15s	14s 33c	37	0.995	3
21:00	22:00	15s 50c	14s 50c	47	1.013	2
22:00	23:00	15s 67c	14s	29	0.929	3
23:00	00:00	30s 17c	26s 75c	26	1.166	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.eu/1440 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.950	1.067	2
01:00	02:00	0.983	1.019	5
02:00	03:00	1.009	1.035	5
03:00	04:00	1.026	0.995	2
04:00	05:00	1.020	0.927	4
05:00	06:00	1.030	0.830	4
06:00	07:00	1.023	0.813	5
07:00	08:00	1.033	0.820	6
08:00	09:00	1.031	0.815	6
09:00	10:00	1.018	0.872	6
10:00	11:00	1.024	0.923	6
11:00	12:00	1.014	0.954	6
12:00	13:00	0.998	1.075	4
13:00	14:00	1.027	1.043	5
14:00	15:00	0.990	0.986	4
15:00	16:00	0.979	1.024	4
16:00	17:00	0.976	1.058	5
17:00	18:00	0.980	1.097	4
18:00	19:00	0.967	1.140	3
19:00	20:00	0.998	1.077	4
20:00	21:00	0.962	1.173	3
21:00	22:00	0.952	1.135	2
22:00	23:00	0.981	1.109	3
23:00	00:00	1.027	1.014	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 Gnoll Skull Basher?: On PvP Alliance EU, Gnoll Skull Basher is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 CET) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 82% 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.