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, Cold Iron Pick is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 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 7% 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

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 Pacific · index 0.953 · typical 13s

Best hours to sell

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

08:00 to 11:00 Pacific · index 1.052 · typical 14s 71c

Spread after the 5% cut

+7%

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

Cold Iron Pickby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	13s	13s	73	0.957	4
01:00	17:00	13s	13s	64	0.960	4
02:00	18:00	13s	13s	82	0.961	4
03:00	19:00	13s	13s	88	0.971	5
04:00	20:00	13s	13s	102	0.968	4
05:00	21:00	13s	12s 75c	99	0.973	4
06:00	22:00	13s	13s	90	0.983	5
07:00	23:00	13s	13s	89	0.979	3
08:00	00:00	13s	13s	112	0.999	2
09:00	01:00	13s	13s	81	0.991	2
10:00	02:00	13s	12s 67c	85	0.998	3
11:00	03:00	13s	13s	73	0.999	3
12:00	04:00	15s 33c	15s 33c	55	1.040	3
13:00	05:00	13s	13s	87	0.999	3
14:00	06:00	14s 17c	14s 17c	57	1.027	6
15:00	07:00	14s 75c	14s 75c	57	1.045	4
16:00	08:00	15s 33c	15s 33c	40	1.067	3
17:00	09:00	14s 40c	14s 40c	45	1.043	5
18:00	10:00	14s 40c	14s	54	1.045	5
19:00	11:00	14s 75c	14s	59	1.060	4
20:00	12:00	14s 25c	13s 50c	60	1.029	4
21:00	13:00	13s 75c	13s	61	1.000	4
22:00	14:00	13s 17c	13s	56	0.966	4
23:00	15:00	13s	13s	64	0.943	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.alliance.us/1959 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.986	1.001	4
01:00	17:00	0.981	1.024	5
02:00	18:00	0.986	1.038	5
03:00	19:00	0.988	1.055	5
04:00	20:00	0.983	1.067	5
05:00	21:00	0.989	1.096	5
06:00	22:00	0.995	1.114	6
07:00	23:00	0.988	1.058	4
08:00	00:00	1.003	1.129	2
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.103	2
10:00	02:00	1.005	1.063	4
11:00	03:00	1.001	1.033	4
12:00	04:00	1.020	1.003	3
13:00	05:00	1.010	0.981	3
14:00	06:00	1.016	0.946	6
15:00	07:00	1.009	0.893	4
16:00	08:00	1.038	0.967	3
17:00	09:00	1.021	0.952	5
18:00	10:00	1.002	0.890	5
19:00	11:00	1.034	0.851	4
20:00	12:00	0.970	0.930	4
21:00	13:00	0.988	0.960	4
22:00	14:00	1.009	0.915	4
23:00	15:00	0.990	0.932	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 Cold Iron Pick?: On Normal Alliance US, Cold Iron Pick is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 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 7% 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.