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 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 Normal Alliance US, Stonemason Trousers is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 Pacific) and dearest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 21% after the 5 percent cut.

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

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

08:00 to 11:00 Pacific · index 0.912 · typical 72s 33c

Best hours to sell

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 Pacific · index 1.130 · typical 87s 31c

Spread after the 5% cut

+21%

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.

Stonemason Trousersby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	74s 63c	67s 75c	9	0.965	4
01:00	17:00	86s 50c	70s 50c	9	1.055	2
02:00	18:00	86s 25c	82s 75c	9	1.146	4
03:00	19:00	86s	80s 25c	13	1.142	4
04:00	20:00	89s 67c	75s 67c	16	1.102	3
05:00	21:00	87s 44c	63s 33c	14	1.076	3
06:00	22:00	81s 63c	65s 75c	18	1.091	4
07:00	23:00	75s	55s	18	0.899	2
08:00	00:00	90s	49s	21	1.041	1
09:00	01:00	79s 50c	62s	16	0.970	2
10:00	02:00	79s 50c	70s	14	0.986	2
11:00	03:00	75s	69s 50c	12	0.935	2
13:00	05:00	89s	88s	11	1.005	1
14:00	06:00	74s 75c	71s 75c	8	0.935	4
15:00	07:00	81s 33c	76s	7	0.969	3
16:00	08:00	77s 50c	74s 50c	5	0.939	2
17:00	09:00	76s	72s	7	0.965	4
18:00	10:00	63s 50c	59s 75c	7	0.833	4
19:00	11:00	81s 67c	79s 67c	7	0.975	3
20:00	12:00	81s 50c	73s	6	1.034	3
21:00	13:00	79s 67c	56s	7	1.021	3
22:00	14:00	72s 88c	68s 75c	8	0.936	4
23:00	15:00	80s 25c	70s 50c	12	0.977	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.alliance.us/1934 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.999	1.031	4
01:00	17:00	0.992	1.055	4
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.119	5
03:00	19:00	0.998	1.158	4
04:00	20:00	0.994	1.182	4
05:00	21:00	1.007	1.211	4
06:00	22:00	1.014	1.255	5
07:00	23:00	0.955	0.998	3
08:00	00:00	0.968	1.133	1
09:00	01:00	0.966	1.140	2
10:00	02:00	0.974	1.077	3
11:00	03:00	0.991	1.040	3
12:00	04:00	1.105	0.795	1
13:00	05:00	0.985	0.943	1
14:00	06:00	1.009	0.896	4
15:00	07:00	1.000	0.848	3
16:00	08:00	1.046	0.809	2
17:00	09:00	0.999	0.833	4
18:00	10:00	0.990	0.847	4
19:00	11:00	1.018	0.869	3
20:00	12:00	0.982	0.936	3
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.947	3
22:00	14:00	1.028	0.908	4
23:00	15:00	0.994	0.970	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 Stonemason Trousers?: On Normal Alliance US, Stonemason Trousers is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 Pacific) and dearest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 21% 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 Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.