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 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 Normal Horde EU, Assassin's Blade is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 56% after the 5 percent cut.

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

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 CET · index 0.808 · typical 5g 53s 56c

Best hours to sell

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 CET · index 1.188 · typical 8g 88s 11c

Spread after the 5% cut

+56%

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.

Assassin's Bladeby hour · Normal Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	4g 60s	4g 49s	3	0.748	1
01:00	02:00	8g 21s	8g 17s	5	1.025	2
03:00	04:00	8g 17s	8g 14s 50c	6	1.051	2
04:00	05:00	11g 44s	11g 44s	1	1.199	1
05:00	06:00	8g 44s	8g 44s	1	1.231	1
06:00	07:00	6g 76s 33c	6g 74s 67c	4	1.133	3
07:00	08:00	9g 44s	9g 44s	2	1.149	2
08:00	09:00	7g 69s 25c	7g 46s 75c	3	1.115	4
09:00	10:00	7g 20s 63c	6g 58s 25c	4	1.014	4
10:00	11:00	7g 12s 67c	6g 96s	3	0.945	3
11:00	12:00	8g 44s	7g 75s	4	1.179	1
12:00	13:00	7g 37s 38c	7g 9s 67c	5	1.025	3
13:00	14:00	8g 1s 67c	6g 76s 33c	4	1.117	3
14:00	15:00	5g 94s 50c	5g 41s	8	0.993	2
15:00	16:00	7g 9s 67c	6g 57s 33c	8	1.013	3
16:00	17:00	7g 66s 7c	6g 61s 33c	5	1.098	3
17:00	18:00	5g 91s 67c	5g 21s	9	0.966	2
18:00	19:00	5g 38s	5g 11s 50c	12	0.880	2
19:00	20:00	6g 9s	5g 56s	8	0.854	3
20:00	21:00	5g 73s 44c	5g 32s 67c	7	0.797	3
21:00	22:00	5g 73s 33c	4g 96s	6	0.791	3
22:00	23:00	7g 14s 67c	6g 94s 67c	6	0.918	3
23:00	00:00	4g 86s	4g 76s 67c	8	0.757	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.normal.horde.eu/1935 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.985	1.242	1
01:00	02:00	1.012	1.018	2
02:00	03:00	1.027	1.104	2
03:00	04:00	1.105	0.900	3
04:00	05:00	1.006	0.893	3
05:00	06:00	1.007	0.863	2
06:00	07:00	1.045	0.861	5
07:00	08:00	0.993	0.793	2
08:00	09:00	1.016	0.820	5
09:00	10:00	1.030	0.842	5
10:00	11:00	1.003	0.819	4
11:00	12:00	0.994	0.876	1
12:00	13:00	0.979	0.947	4
13:00	14:00	1.061	0.956	4
14:00	15:00	0.968	1.026	3
15:00	16:00	0.958	1.107	4
16:00	17:00	1.053	0.951	3
17:00	18:00	0.980	0.935	3
18:00	19:00	0.946	1.149	2
19:00	20:00	0.986	1.072	3
20:00	21:00	0.958	1.170	3
21:00	22:00	0.968	1.187	3
22:00	23:00	0.953	1.225	3
23:00	00:00	0.967	1.242	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 Assassin's Blade?: On Normal Horde EU, Assassin's Blade is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 56% 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 EU through the night fills the gaps.