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 Horde 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 Horde US, Spiked Chain Gauntlets is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 293% after the 5 percent cut.

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

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 Pacific · index 0.632 · typical 35s 72c

Best hours to sell

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 1.391 · typical 66s 18c

Spread after the 5% cut

+293%

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.

Spiked Chain Gauntletsby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	76s 11c	50s 33c	11	1.286	3
01:00	17:00	52s 50c	13s	14	0.910	2
02:00	18:00	57s 50c	13s	13	1.023	2
03:00	19:00	73s 33c	11s	14	1.005	1
04:00	20:00	45s	25s 33c	10	1.118	3
05:00	21:00	79s 80c	13s 33c	18	1.467	3
06:00	22:00	73s 75c	14s 50c	22	1.587	2
07:00	23:00	64s	12s	15	1.028	2
08:00	00:00	75s	13s 33c	17	1.390	3
09:00	01:00	86s 67c	59s	11	1.729	3
10:00	02:00	55s	13s 50c	14	0.819	2
11:00	03:00	23s	15s	9	0.616	2
12:00	04:00	23s	14s 50c	10	0.512	2
13:00	05:00	37s	16s	17	1.011	1
14:00	06:00	77s	15s	12	1.502	2
15:00	07:00	59s	15s	8	0.954	1
16:00	08:00	25s	15s	18	0.693	1
17:00	09:00	25s	15s	15	0.701	1
18:00	10:00	47s 75c	15s	16	0.898	2
19:00	11:00	45s 17c	15s	15	0.820	2
20:00	12:00	42s 67c	19s 33c	9	0.701	3
21:00	13:00	19s 33c	13s 67c	10	0.375	3
22:00	14:00	52s 50c	13s	14	0.929	2
23:00	15:00	52s 50c	13s	14	0.926	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.normal.horde.us/15520 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.991	1.028	4
01:00	17:00	1.004	1.005	3
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.030	4
03:00	19:00	1.006	1.060	2
04:00	20:00	0.986	1.128	4
05:00	21:00	0.988	1.185	4
06:00	22:00	0.989	1.081	3
07:00	23:00	0.981	1.300	3
08:00	00:00	0.974	1.290	3
09:00	01:00	1.212	1.051	3
10:00	02:00	1.002	1.214	2
11:00	03:00	1.044	0.967	3
12:00	04:00	0.989	0.991	3
13:00	05:00	1.026	0.877	2
14:00	06:00	0.983	0.884	4
15:00	07:00	0.957	0.855	2
16:00	08:00	0.992	0.839	1
17:00	09:00	0.978	0.854	1
18:00	10:00	0.953	0.903	3
19:00	11:00	0.983	0.798	4
20:00	12:00	1.004	0.738	4
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.935	3
22:00	14:00	0.988	0.967	3
23:00	15:00	0.982	1.019	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 Spiked Chain Gauntlets?: On Normal Horde US, Spiked Chain Gauntlets is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 293% 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 Horde US through the night fills the gaps.