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, Battle Knife is cheapest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 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 76% 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

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 CET · index 0.883 · typical 51s 18c

Best hours to sell

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 CET · index 1.196 · typical 64s 61c

Spread after the 5% cut

+76%

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.

Battle Knifeby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	1g 10s	99s	5	1.256	1
01:00	02:00	71s 7c	46s 67c	34	1.117	3
02:00	03:00	49s 50c	34s 50c	41	1.011	2
03:00	04:00	49s 50c	34s 50c	39	1.007	2
04:00	05:00	48s	31s	40	0.918	2
05:00	06:00	70s	59s	11	1.024	2
06:00	07:00	58s 81c	46s 75c	24	0.959	4
07:00	08:00	53s	45s 50c	22	0.897	4
08:00	09:00	53s	45s 25c	25	0.905	4
09:00	10:00	54s 25c	45s 25c	24	0.928	4
10:00	11:00	48s 88c	38s	25	0.863	4
11:00	12:00	58s 50c	42s 75c	25	1.045	4
12:00	13:00	48s	31s	40	0.880	1
13:00	14:00	56s 53c	37s	28	0.944	3
14:00	15:00	49s	36s 67c	22	0.823	3
15:00	16:00	54s 25c	32s	35	1.064	2
16:00	17:00	69s 42c	39s	31	1.204	3
17:00	18:00	65s 40c	32s	35	1.249	2
18:00	19:00	59s	32s	38	1.136	2
19:00	20:00	65s 60c	55s	24	0.995	3
20:00	21:00	44s 79c	31s 50c	54	0.901	2
21:00	22:00	44s 80c	31s	43	0.982	1
22:00	23:00	47s 17c	35s 67c	55	0.911	3
23:00	00:00	64s 56c	53s 67c	31	0.980	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/15241 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 Battle Knife?: On PvP Alliance EU, Battle Knife is cheapest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 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 76% 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.