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, Massive Battle Axe is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 322% 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

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 0.699 · typical 46s 7c

Best hours to sell

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 CET · index 1.435 · typical 1g 59s 28c

Spread after the 5% cut

+322%

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.

Massive Battle Axeby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	55s	40s	13	0.408	1
01:00	02:00	39s 33c	33s 67c	55	0.823	3
02:00	03:00	31s 50c	31s	68	1.026	2
03:00	04:00	31s 50c	30s 50c	69	1.027	2
04:00	05:00	31s	31s	110	1.025	2
05:00	06:00	43s 25c	33s 50c	20	0.885	2
06:00	07:00	33s 56c	32s	53	0.978	4
07:00	08:00	33s	32s	50	0.972	4
08:00	09:00	32s 25c	32s	49	0.964	4
09:00	10:00	32s 25c	32s	50	0.965	4
10:00	11:00	46s 40c	45s 40c	35	0.870	5
11:00	12:00	40s	33s 50c	37	0.892	4
12:00	13:00	31s	30s	97	1.025	1
13:00	14:00	32s 67c	32s	57	0.979	3
14:00	15:00	31s	31s	82	1.020	2
15:00	16:00	1g 87s 33c	1g 87s 33c	59	1.550	3
16:00	17:00	1g 36s 50c	48s 50c	59	1.323	4
17:00	18:00	1g 54s	53s 67c	65	1.431	3
18:00	19:00	31s	31s	100	1.021	2
19:00	20:00	54s	50s	61	0.898	3
20:00	21:00	31s	31s	117	1.025	2
21:00	22:00	31s	31s	88	1.025	1
22:00	23:00	31s 67c	31s 33c	103	1.005	3
23:00	00:00	43s 89c	34s	83	0.864	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/15269 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 Massive Battle Axe?: On PvP Alliance EU, Massive Battle Axe is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 322% 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.