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 Normal Alliance US 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 Normal Alliance US, Feral Buckler is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 202% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/alliance/us

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

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 Pacific · index 0.648 · typical 21s 67c

Best hours to sell

03:00 to 06:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 Pacific · index 1.340 · typical 59s 30c

Spread after the 5% cut

+202%

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.

Feral Bucklerby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	24s 22c	17s 33c	14	0.818	3
01:00	17:00	28s	20s	12	1.047	2
02:00	18:00	39s	30s 50c	13	0.981	4
03:00	19:00	51s 25c	30s	13	1.236	4
04:00	20:00	63s 33c	34s 67c	11	1.390	3
05:00	21:00	63s 33c	28s 33c	12	1.395	3
06:00	22:00	50s 50c	28s 25c	15	1.209	4
07:00	23:00	44s 50c	35s	14	1.061	2
08:00	00:00	19s	15s	23	0.881	1
09:00	01:00	44s 50c	33s 50c	17	1.047	2
10:00	02:00	43s	33s 50c	16	1.005	2
11:00	03:00	37s	31s	14	0.902	2
12:00	04:00	13s	13s	2	0.427	1
13:00	05:00	15s	12s	15	0.616	1
14:00	06:00	33s	23s	14	0.979	3
15:00	07:00	24s 25c	17s	15	0.982	2
16:00	08:00	22s	20s	14	1.015	1
17:00	09:00	35s 50c	29s 25c	10	0.937	4
18:00	10:00	30s 67c	20s 33c	13	0.921	3
19:00	11:00	37s 67c	17s	13	1.240	2
20:00	12:00	32s	17s 50c	17	0.807	2
21:00	13:00	49s 33c	23s	12	1.150	3
22:00	14:00	28s 67c	17s 67c	17	0.902	3
23:00	15:00	21s	15s	16	1.051	1

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.normal.alliance.us/15307 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.999	1.031	4
01:00	17:00	0.992	1.055	4
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.119	5
03:00	19:00	0.998	1.158	4
04:00	20:00	0.994	1.182	4
05:00	21:00	1.007	1.211	4
06:00	22:00	1.014	1.255	5
07:00	23:00	0.955	0.998	3
08:00	00:00	0.968	1.133	1
09:00	01:00	0.966	1.140	2
10:00	02:00	0.974	1.077	3
11:00	03:00	0.991	1.040	3
12:00	04:00	1.105	0.795	1
13:00	05:00	0.985	0.943	1
14:00	06:00	1.009	0.896	4
15:00	07:00	1.000	0.848	3
16:00	08:00	1.046	0.809	2
17:00	09:00	0.999	0.833	4
18:00	10:00	0.990	0.847	4
19:00	11:00	1.018	0.869	3
20:00	12:00	0.982	0.936	3
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.947	3
22:00	14:00	1.028	0.908	4
23:00	15:00	0.994	0.970	2

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 Feral Buckler?: On Normal Alliance US, Feral Buckler is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 202% 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 Normal Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.