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, Slayer's Sash is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET) and dearest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 47% 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

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 CET · index 0.863 · typical 60s 44c

Best hours to sell

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 CET · index 1.169 · typical 90s 95c

Spread after the 5% cut

+47%

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 0 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Slayer's Sashby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	78s 50c	66s 50c	4	1.055	2
02:00	03:00	72s 50c	71s 50c	6	0.978	2
03:00	04:00	73s 50c	72s 50c	6	1.002	2
04:00	05:00	85s	66s 50c	9	1.029	2
05:00	06:00	47s	47s	3	0.809	1
06:00	07:00	62s 33c	59s	6	0.817	3
07:00	08:00	72s	70s 67c	4	0.964	3
08:00	09:00	72s	67s 33c	5	0.970	3
09:00	10:00	72s	68s 33c	4	0.968	3
10:00	11:00	68s 33c	66s 67c	3	0.903	3
11:00	12:00	57s 50c	50s 50c	4	0.853	4
12:00	13:00	98s	89s	4	1.102	1
13:00	14:00	84s	79s 50c	3	1.037	2
14:00	15:00	89s	89s	5	1.012	1
15:00	16:00	89s	70s	9	1.018	1
16:00	17:00	85s	78s 67c	4	1.225	3
17:00	18:00	1g 2s 84c	93s 50c	6	1.253	2
18:00	19:00	85s	74s 50c	8	1.029	2
19:00	20:00	86s 80c	74s 50c	7	1.041	2
20:00	21:00	75s	72s	6	0.896	2
21:00	22:00	80s	80s	2	0.888	1
22:00	23:00	93s 50c	91s	6	1.091	2
23:00	00:00	91s 17c	75s	8	1.062	2

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/14755 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.999	1.123	1
01:00	02:00	1.013	1.062	4
02:00	03:00	1.056	1.023	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	1.017	2
04:00	05:00	1.041	1.000	3
05:00	06:00	1.055	0.794	2
06:00	07:00	1.023	0.843	5
07:00	08:00	1.042	0.789	5
08:00	09:00	1.026	0.838	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.882	5
10:00	11:00	1.031	0.913	5
11:00	12:00	0.983	1.040	5
12:00	13:00	0.977	0.873	2
13:00	14:00	0.985	1.003	3
14:00	15:00	0.982	1.004	3
15:00	16:00	0.975	1.048	3
16:00	17:00	0.966	1.074	4
17:00	18:00	0.962	1.087	3
18:00	19:00	0.952	1.128	2
19:00	20:00	1.002	1.025	3
20:00	21:00	0.962	1.153	2
21:00	22:00	0.954	1.066	1
22:00	23:00	0.961	1.143	3
23:00	00:00	1.005	1.075	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 Slayer's Sash?: On PvP Alliance EU, Slayer's Sash is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET) and dearest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 47% 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.