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, Expert Cookbook is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 16% 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

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 Pacific · index 0.952 · typical 1g 25s 50c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 Pacific · index 1.058 · typical 1g 46s 33c

Spread after the 5% cut

+16%

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.

Expert Cookbookby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1g 39s 67c	1g 26s 67c	66	1.015	3
01:00	17:00	1g 23s 25c	1g 20s 50c	85	0.967	2
02:00	18:00	1g 21s	1g 21s	70	0.945	2
03:00	19:00	1g 22s	1g 20s	60	0.960	1
04:00	20:00	2g 48s 67c	2g 47s	39	1.200	3
05:00	21:00	1g 27s 22c	1g 20s 67c	60	0.957	3
06:00	22:00	1g 32s	1g 28s	46	0.966	2
07:00	23:00	1g 20s	1g 14s 50c	79	0.943	2
08:00	00:00	1g 24s 50c	1g 16s 33c	36	0.948	3
09:00	01:00	1g 25s 50c	1g 24s 50c	28	0.968	2
10:00	02:00	1g 30s	1g 28s	30	0.970	1
11:00	03:00	1g 65s	1g 64s 50c	20	0.931	2
12:00	04:00	1g 45s	1g 45s	30	1.108	2
13:00	05:00	1g 30s	1g 25s	26	1.003	1
14:00	06:00	1g 60s	1g 59s	34	1.024	3
15:00	07:00	1g 49s	1g 40s	89	1.146	1
16:00	08:00	1g 20s	1g 20s	34	0.931	1
17:00	09:00	1g 20s	1g 19s	28	0.934	1
18:00	10:00	1g 32s 50c	1g 18s	58	1.029	2
19:00	11:00	1g 53s 89c	1g 48s 33c	44	1.073	3
20:00	12:00	1g 48s 58c	1g 34s	48	1.055	3
21:00	13:00	1g 38s 33c	1g 26s 33c	70	0.983	3
22:00	14:00	1g 34s 67c	1g 28s 33c	51	0.972	3
23:00	15:00	1g 24s 50c	1g 22s	86	0.975	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/16072 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.978	1.041	4
01:00	17:00	0.997	1.031	3
02:00	18:00	0.994	1.069	4
03:00	19:00	1.004	1.124	2
04:00	20:00	0.978	1.175	4
05:00	21:00	0.984	1.237	4
06:00	22:00	0.983	1.087	3
07:00	23:00	0.970	1.392	3
08:00	00:00	0.964	1.363	3
09:00	01:00	1.437	0.751	2
10:00	02:00	1.025	1.058	1
11:00	03:00	1.020	0.985	3
12:00	04:00	0.973	0.993	3
13:00	05:00	1.014	0.892	2
14:00	06:00	0.973	0.879	4
15:00	07:00	0.949	0.839	2
16:00	08:00	0.977	0.840	1
17:00	09:00	0.958	0.858	1
18:00	10:00	0.942	0.903	3
19:00	11:00	0.973	0.797	4
20:00	12:00	0.993	0.738	4
21:00	13:00	0.971	0.940	3
22:00	14:00	0.976	0.975	3
23:00	15:00	0.967	1.032	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 Expert Cookbook?: On Normal Horde US, Expert Cookbook is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 16% 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.