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 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 PvP Alliance US, Manual: Mageweave Bandage is cheapest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 Pacific) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 69% after the 5 percent cut.

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

00:00 to 03:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 Pacific · index 0.805 · typical 54s 35c

Best hours to sell

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 Pacific · index 1.438 · typical 87s 83c

Spread after the 5% cut

+69%

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.

Manual: Mageweave Bandageby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	54s 4c	49s 50c	78	0.816	2
01:00	17:00	59s	53s 33c	57	0.894	3
02:00	18:00	50s	45s 50c	85	0.706	2
03:00	19:00	69s 75c	49s 50c	72	0.934	2
04:00	20:00	61s 25c	59s 67c	53	0.840	3
05:00	21:00	60s 25c	59s 25c	56	0.865	4
06:00	22:00	72s 25c	61s	62	1.057	4
07:00	23:00	72s	57s 75c	65	1.054	4
08:00	00:00	57s 33c	51s 67c	55	0.965	3
09:00	01:00	57s 33c	52s	54	0.965	3
10:00	02:00	71s 75c	60s 75c	41	1.041	4
11:00	03:00	57s 33c	51s	47	0.968	3
12:00	04:00	68s	65s	17	1.105	1
13:00	05:00	59s 50c	55s	35	0.958	2
14:00	06:00	1g 7s 33c	54s 67c	34	1.761	3
15:00	07:00	93s 50c	59s 50c	36	1.524	2
16:00	08:00	62s 67c	60s 33c	41	1.029	3
17:00	09:00	60s 55c	54s 67c	40	0.968	3
18:00	10:00	58s	57s	35	0.982	2
19:00	11:00	57s 75c	56s 50c	38	0.986	2
20:00	12:00	49s 75c	48s 50c	66	0.793	2
21:00	13:00	48s	44s	107	0.957	1
22:00	14:00	55s 50c	54s 50c	75	0.974	2
23:00	15:00	55s	53s 33c	70	0.858	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.us/16113 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.025	0.959	4
01:00	17:00	1.082	0.840	3
02:00	18:00	0.993	1.061	3
03:00	19:00	1.011	1.016	3
04:00	20:00	0.995	1.074	4
05:00	21:00	1.000	1.092	5
06:00	22:00	1.020	1.143	4
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.194	5
08:00	00:00	1.011	1.116	4
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.133	4
10:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	5
11:00	03:00	0.999	1.090	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.987	2
13:00	05:00	0.990	0.984	3
14:00	06:00	0.995	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	0.973	0.963	3
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.938	4
17:00	09:00	0.974	0.888	4
18:00	10:00	0.977	0.935	3
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.902	3
20:00	12:00	0.984	0.913	3
21:00	13:00	0.992	0.839	2
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.927	3
23:00	15:00	1.003	0.962	4

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 Manual: Mageweave Bandage?: On PvP Alliance US, Manual: Mageweave Bandage is cheapest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 Pacific) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 69% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.