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, Buccaneer's Orb is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 CET) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 285% 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

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 CET · index 0.803 · typical 23s 67c

Best hours to sell

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 1.396 · typical 79s 33c

Spread after the 5% cut

+285%

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.

Buccaneer's Orbby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	1g 22s	70s	13	1.600	1
01:00	02:00	51s	31s 33c	19	1.184	3
02:00	03:00	14s	12s 50c	19	0.888	2
03:00	04:00	14s	12s 50c	20	0.894	2
04:00	05:00	16s 50c	12s	19	0.803	2
05:00	06:00	44s	31s 50c	18	1.013	2
06:00	07:00	23s	20s 25c	15	0.738	4
07:00	08:00	23s	20s 50c	12	0.735	4
08:00	09:00	25s	18s	13	0.935	4
09:00	10:00	44s	17s 75c	13	1.498	4
10:00	11:00	35s 38c	14s 25c	14	1.217	4
11:00	12:00	24s 50c	16s 75c	17	0.830	4
12:00	13:00	13s	12s	13	0.801	1
13:00	14:00	19s	15s	16	0.788	3
14:00	15:00	13s 50c	12s 50c	20	0.835	2
15:00	16:00	15s	12s 50c	18	0.924	2
16:00	17:00	22s	14s 33c	20	1.082	3
17:00	18:00	20s 22c	17s	15	0.771	3
18:00	19:00	14s	12s 50c	20	0.862	2
19:00	20:00	76s 22c	74s 67c	13	1.277	3
20:00	21:00	19s	12s 50c	20	1.145	2
21:00	22:00	13s	13s	16	0.901	1
22:00	23:00	17s 56c	13s 67c	26	0.874	3
23:00	00:00	65s	31s 33c	21	1.405	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/15912 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 Buccaneer's Orb?: On PvP Alliance EU, Buccaneer's Orb is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 CET) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 285% 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.