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, Hulking Spaulders is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 Pacific) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.

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

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 Pacific · index 0.947 · typical 56s 17c

Best hours to sell

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 Pacific · index 1.044 · typical 57s 44c

Spread after the 5% cut

-2%

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.

Hulking Spauldersby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	41s	35s	14	1.036	2
01:00	17:00	52s 33c	41s 33c	9	1.001	3
02:00	18:00	36s	33s 50c	14	0.909	2
03:00	19:00	36s 88c	33s 50c	14	0.952	2
04:00	20:00	57s 33c	54s 67c	11	0.985	3
05:00	21:00	56s 50c	56s	11	0.945	4
06:00	22:00	56s	54s 50c	10	0.943	4
07:00	23:00	56s	56s	9	0.953	4
08:00	00:00	66s	64s	11	0.993	3
09:00	01:00	66s	58s 67c	10	0.999	3
10:00	02:00	56s	53s 25c	7	0.978	4
11:00	03:00	65s 33c	62s	10	1.013	3
12:00	04:00	90s	90s	6	0.961	1
13:00	05:00	65s 50c	65s	6	1.000	2
14:00	06:00	62s 33c	61s	9	1.029	3
15:00	07:00	48s 50c	44s	10	1.073	2
16:00	08:00	61s 50c	59s 33c	8	1.030	3
17:00	09:00	60s 44c	59s 33c	8	1.025	3
18:00	10:00	71s 50c	71s 50c	8	1.033	2
19:00	11:00	71s 50c	71s 50c	8	1.054	2
20:00	12:00	44s	41s	11	1.040	2
21:00	13:00	66s 50c	62s	8	0.969	2
22:00	14:00	73s	68s	8	1.006	3
23:00	15:00	57s	44s	14	1.072	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.us/14749 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 Hulking Spaulders?: On PvP Alliance US, Hulking Spaulders is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 Pacific) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.
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.