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, Fighter Broadsword is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 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 647% 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

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 CET · index 0.651 · typical 55s 29c

Best hours to sell

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 1.442 · typical 3g 6s 67c

Spread after the 5% cut

+647%

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.

Fighter Broadswordby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	5g 52s	5g 52s	2	2.037	1
01:00	02:00	1g 22s 33c	56s 33c	36	0.880	3
02:00	03:00	87s	45s 50c	53	1.050	2
03:00	04:00	1g	45s 50c	55	1.183	2
04:00	05:00	1g 11s	36s	39	1.370	2
05:00	06:00	1g 29s 75c	1g 20s	27	0.910	2
06:00	07:00	1g 11s	78s 25c	27	1.045	4
07:00	08:00	1g 12s 19c	78s 25c	25	1.022	4
08:00	09:00	93s	55s 75c	28	0.948	4
09:00	10:00	92s 38c	58s 50c	28	0.867	4
10:00	11:00	1g 23s 83c	67s 33c	30	1.012	3
11:00	12:00	87s 44c	49s 33c	29	0.860	3
12:00	13:00	1g 22s	42s	40	1.261	1
13:00	14:00	1g 50s 67c	94s 67c	35	1.233	3
14:00	15:00	68s	41s 50c	56	0.842	2
15:00	16:00	76s 13c	41s 50c	53	0.915	2
16:00	17:00	1g 6s 33c	57s 33c	42	0.974	3
17:00	18:00	60s 67c	39s	55	0.749	2
18:00	19:00	45s 50c	35s	56	0.569	2
19:00	20:00	2g 15s 22c	2g 8s	27	0.908	3
20:00	21:00	50s 54c	35s	40	0.609	2
21:00	22:00	54s 40c	35s	48	0.672	1
22:00	23:00	60s 94c	47s	47	0.674	3
23:00	00:00	2g 45s 67c	2g 8s	25	1.410	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/15212 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.986	1.122	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.051	4
02:00	03:00	1.049	1.009	3
03:00	04:00	1.033	0.997	2
04:00	05:00	1.043	1.023	3
05:00	06:00	1.061	0.800	2
06:00	07:00	1.027	0.870	5
07:00	08:00	1.040	0.815	5
08:00	09:00	1.025	0.880	5
09:00	10:00	1.007	0.934	5
10:00	11:00	1.037	0.813	4
11:00	12:00	0.990	0.899	4
12:00	13:00	0.983	0.871	2
13:00	14:00	0.988	0.987	3
14:00	15:00	0.986	1.009	3
15:00	16:00	0.979	1.063	3
16:00	17:00	0.970	1.089	4
17:00	18:00	0.960	1.114	3
18:00	19:00	0.960	1.154	2
19:00	20:00	0.991	1.039	3
20:00	21:00	0.955	1.159	2
21:00	22:00	0.964	1.073	1
22:00	23:00	0.955	1.144	3
23:00	00:00	1.002	1.085	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 Fighter Broadsword?: On PvP Alliance EU, Fighter Broadsword is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 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 647% 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.