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, Prospector's Woolies is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET) and dearest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 66% 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

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 CET · index 0.911 · typical 28s 48c

Best hours to sell

10:00 to 13:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 CET · index 1.209 · typical 48s 40c

Spread after the 5% cut

+66%

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.

Prospector's Wooliesby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	40s	40s	4	0.882	1
01:00	02:00	25s 93c	25s 33c	11	0.977	3
02:00	03:00	18s	17s 50c	15	0.947	2
03:00	04:00	18s	17s 50c	15	0.942	2
04:00	05:00	18s	17s	17	0.890	2
05:00	06:00	29s	29s	14	1.016	2
06:00	07:00	23s 50c	23s 50c	14	0.963	4
07:00	08:00	23s 50c	23s 25c	14	0.966	4
08:00	09:00	23s 50c	23s 25c	15	0.969	4
09:00	10:00	38s 80c	38s 60c	12	1.068	5
10:00	11:00	40s 20c	36s 60c	10	1.142	5
11:00	12:00	43s	41s 75c	7	1.126	4
12:00	13:00	62s	62s	6	1.358	2
13:00	14:00	24s 33c	22s 67c	14	1.026	3
14:00	15:00	31s	29s 67c	13	0.994	3
15:00	16:00	31s	27s 67c	16	0.991	3
16:00	17:00	29s 50c	26s 50c	19	0.945	4
17:00	18:00	31s	27s 33c	19	0.994	3
18:00	19:00	20s 67c	18s	29	1.048	2
19:00	20:00	26s 53c	25s	18	0.901	3
20:00	21:00	19s 50c	17s 50c	30	0.992	2
21:00	22:00	17s 80c	17s	21	1.011	1
22:00	23:00	19s 56c	18s 33c	24	0.947	3
23:00	00:00	25s 89c	24s 67c	17	0.903	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/14565 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 Prospector's Woolies?: On PvP Alliance EU, Prospector's Woolies is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET) and dearest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 66% 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.