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, Sweet Nectar is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific) and dearest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 79% 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

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 0.824 · typical 3s 8c

Best hours to sell

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

08:00 to 11:00 Pacific · index 1.161 · typical 4s 94c

Spread after the 5% cut

+79%

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 0 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Sweet Nectarby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	4s 17c	4s 6c	31	1.192	3
01:00	17:00	3s 75c	3s 43c	42	0.957	2
02:00	18:00	3s 75c	3s	42	0.973	2
03:00	19:00	3s 75c	2s 43c	45	0.994	2
04:00	20:00	2s 83c	2s 48c	28	0.790	3
05:00	21:00	2s 79c	2s 60c	29	0.793	3
06:00	22:00	3s 63c	2s 80c	15	0.890	4
07:00	23:00	4s 8c	3s 93c	13	1.038	4
08:00	00:00	4s 71c	4s 71c	8	1.092	3
09:00	01:00	4s 36c	4s 36c	9	1.018	3
10:00	02:00	4s 46c	4s 46c	11	1.076	3
11:00	03:00	5s 4c	4s 84c	18	1.019	2
13:00	05:00	3s 40c	3s 30c	28	0.869	1
14:00	06:00	4s 75c	2s 72c	26	0.974	2
15:00	07:00	4s 84c	4s 49c	30	1.018	2
16:00	08:00	4s 5c	3s 82c	22	1.395	3
17:00	09:00	4s 59c	4s 24c	41	0.987	2
18:00	10:00	6s 18c	5s 98c	15	1.103	1
19:00	11:00	5s 87c	5s 75c	15	1.058	1
20:00	12:00	4s 13c	3s 67c	43	0.932	2
21:00	13:00	5s 11c	5s	20	0.947	1
22:00	14:00	3s 67c	3s 67c	10	0.945	3
23:00	15:00	3s 38c	3s 37c	23	0.940	4

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/1708 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 Sweet Nectar?: On PvP Alliance US, Sweet Nectar is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific) and dearest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 79% 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.