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 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 PvP Alliance EU, Goblin Screwdriver is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 42% after the 5 percent cut.

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

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 0.885 · typical 1g 10s 32c

Best hours to sell

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 CET · index 1.309 · typical 1g 51s 81c

Spread after the 5% cut

+42%

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.

Goblin Screwdriverby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	1g 19s	1g 11s	31	0.870	1
01:00	02:00	1g 5s 73c	99s 33c	36	0.907	3
02:00	03:00	98s	94s	30	0.897	2
03:00	04:00	98s 75c	85s	25	0.905	2
04:00	05:00	97s	95s	27	0.875	2
05:00	06:00	1g 8s 50c	97s 50c	22	0.994	2
06:00	07:00	1g 2s 25c	95s 75c	16	0.923	4
07:00	08:00	1g 2s	86s 50c	16	0.919	4
08:00	09:00	98s 50c	95s	12	0.900	4
09:00	10:00	98s 25c	93s 25c	12	0.899	4
10:00	11:00	97s 38c	91s 50c	12	0.898	4
11:00	12:00	1g 23s	1g 19s 50c	10	0.945	4
12:00	13:00	1g 52s 84c	1g 44s	8	1.106	2
13:00	14:00	1g 9s 67c	85s 67c	12	1.005	3
14:00	15:00	1g 29s 67c	1g 25s 33c	12	0.999	3
15:00	16:00	1g 27s 42c	1g 22s	13	0.979	3
16:00	17:00	1g 19s 94c	79s 75c	17	0.965	4
17:00	18:00	1g 28s 67c	1g 4s 33c	16	0.998	3
18:00	19:00	1g 76s	1g 71s 50c	23	1.549	2
19:00	20:00	1g 57s 27c	1g 4s 67c	25	1.288	3
20:00	21:00	1g 22s 15c	94s	38	1.089	2
21:00	22:00	1g 50s	98s	32	1.269	1
22:00	23:00	1g 1s 78c	76s 33c	38	0.943	3
23:00	00:00	1g 6s 22c	94s 67c	36	0.880	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.eu/1936 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.996	1.109	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.050	4
02:00	03:00	1.044	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.037	1.005	3
05:00	06:00	1.065	0.787	2
06:00	07:00	1.026	0.845	5
07:00	08:00	1.040	0.797	5
08:00	09:00	1.022	0.854	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.906	5
10:00	11:00	1.044	0.920	5
11:00	12:00	0.998	0.902	4
12:00	13:00	0.985	0.879	2
13:00	14:00	0.991	1.004	3
14:00	15:00	0.989	1.018	3
15:00	16:00	0.984	1.066	3
16:00	17:00	0.968	1.087	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.104	3
18:00	19:00	0.959	1.143	2
19:00	20:00	0.995	1.027	3
20:00	21:00	0.950	1.170	2
21:00	22:00	0.944	1.085	1
22:00	23:00	0.949	1.148	3
23:00	00:00	1.000	1.086	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 Goblin Screwdriver?: On PvP Alliance EU, Goblin Screwdriver is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 42% 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 EU through the night fills the gaps.