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, Tree Bark Jacket is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 236% 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 0.767 · typical 1g 20s 58c

Best hours to sell

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 CET · index 1.477 · typical 3g 13s 12c

Spread after the 5% cut

+236%

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.

Tree Bark Jacketby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	1g 27s	87s	5	0.892	2
02:00	03:00	1g 23s 50c	87s 50c	4	0.835	2
03:00	04:00	1g 16s 25c	69s	5	0.777	2
04:00	05:00	1g 22s	1g 9s	9	0.688	2
05:00	06:00	3g 19s	3g 19s	3	1.253	2
06:00	07:00	1g 81s 67c	1g 78s 33c	6	0.891	3
07:00	08:00	1g 83s 42c	1g 78s 33c	6	0.917	3
08:00	09:00	1g 84s	1g 65s	5	0.936	3
09:00	10:00	1g 84s	1g 77s 67c	4	0.948	3
10:00	11:00	1g 64s 75c	1g 54s	3	0.858	4
11:00	12:00	2g 95s 67c	2g 95s 67c	2	1.387	3
12:00	13:00	4g 17s	1g	5	1.846	1
13:00	14:00	2g 26s 70c	1g 95s	5	1.196	2
14:00	15:00	2g 37s 50c	1g 73s 50c	7	1.264	2
15:00	16:00	1g 97s 25c	1g 63s 50c	8	1.075	2
16:00	17:00	1g 71s	99s 50c	10	0.964	2
17:00	18:00	1g 68s 50c	1g 5s	11	0.938	2
18:00	19:00	1g 62s 50c	1g 19s	12	0.902	2
19:00	20:00	1g 60s 50c	94s 50c	12	0.905	2
20:00	21:00	1g 51s 7c	1g 27s 50c	13	0.875	2
21:00	22:00	1g 27s	1g 15s	5	1.027	1
22:00	23:00	1g 35s	1g 18s	11	0.857	3
23:00	00:00	1g 37s 50c	1g 13s	13	0.770	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/1486 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 Tree Bark Jacket?: On PvP Alliance EU, Tree Bark Jacket is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 236% 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.