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, Giant Club is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 22% 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 0.934 · typical 1g 33s

Best hours to sell

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

10:00 to 13:00 CET · index 1.116 · typical 1g 40s 65c

Spread after the 5% cut

+22%

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.

Giant Clubby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	1g 38s 50c	1g 15s 50c	6	0.936	2
02:00	03:00	1g 38s 50c	1g 15s 50c	8	0.938	2
03:00	04:00	1g 38s 50c	1g 15s 50c	7	0.941	2
04:00	05:00	1g 22s	98s 50c	17	0.924	2
06:00	07:00	1g 22s	96s 50c	17	0.950	2
07:00	08:00	1g 31s 33c	1g 14s 33c	10	0.984	3
08:00	09:00	1g 31s	1g 14s 33c	11	0.987	3
09:00	10:00	1g 49s 33c	1g 29s 33c	10	1.113	3
10:00	11:00	1g 50s 13c	1g 19s	10	1.216	2
11:00	12:00	1g 22s 50c	1g 14s	15	1.020	2
12:00	13:00	1g 35s	1g 34s	13	0.966	1
13:00	14:00	1g 45s	1g 34s	13	1.038	1
14:00	15:00	1g 45s	1g	13	1.040	1
15:00	16:00	1g 35s	1g	17	0.970	1
16:00	17:00	1g 35s	1g	19	0.987	1
17:00	18:00	1g 57s	1g 24s 50c	12	1.072	2
18:00	19:00	1g 42s 17c	99s	14	0.986	2
19:00	20:00	1g 42s 10c	99s 50c	13	0.997	2
20:00	21:00	1g 42s 43c	99s 50c	13	0.992	2
21:00	22:00	1g 72s	99s	5	1.100	1
22:00	23:00	1g 37s 50c	99s	17	0.960	2
23:00	00:00	1g 22s 50c	99s	19	0.884	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/15226 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 Giant Club?: On PvP Alliance EU, Giant Club is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 22% 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.