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, Twin-bladed Axe is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 13% 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

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 CET · index 0.960 · typical 11s

Best hours to sell

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 CET · index 1.067 · typical 12s 93c

Spread after the 5% cut

+13%

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.

Twin-bladed Axeby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	11s	11s	245	0.936	1
01:00	02:00	11s	10s 33c	284	0.987	3
02:00	03:00	11s	11s	273	1.003	2
03:00	04:00	11s	11s	272	1.003	2
04:00	05:00	14s	12s 33c	214	1.078	3
05:00	06:00	11s	10s 50c	156	1.004	2
06:00	07:00	13s 80c	13s 40c	153	1.119	5
07:00	08:00	12s 13c	12s	147	1.018	5
08:00	09:00	12s	11s 60c	149	1.010	5
09:00	10:00	11s 80c	11s 40c	157	0.997	5
10:00	11:00	11s 70c	10s 60c	143	0.988	5
11:00	12:00	11s 80c	10s 80c	189	1.001	5
12:00	13:00	13s	11s	184	1.006	2
13:00	14:00	11s	11s	277	1.004	3
14:00	15:00	12s 33c	10s 67c	243	1.010	3
15:00	16:00	12s 33c	11s	263	1.010	3
16:00	17:00	11s 25c	10s 50c	288	0.958	4
17:00	18:00	11s	10s 67c	309	0.929	3
18:00	19:00	11s	11s	421	1.003	2
19:00	20:00	11s	11s	306	0.949	3
20:00	21:00	11s	10s 50c	454	1.003	2
21:00	22:00	11s	10s	419	1.003	1
22:00	23:00	11s	10s	388	1.004	3
23:00	00:00	11s	10s 33c	349	0.976	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/15268 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 Twin-bladed Axe?: On PvP Alliance EU, Twin-bladed Axe is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 13% 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.