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, Scholarly Robes is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 336% 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

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 Pacific · index 0.598 · typical 22s 35c

Best hours to sell

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 Pacific · index 1.751 · typical 87s 39c

Spread after the 5% cut

+336%

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.

Scholarly Robesby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	60s 93c	37s 67c	26	1.318	3
01:00	17:00	52s 50c	18s	40	1.409	2
02:00	18:00	22s 50c	16s	33	0.609	2
03:00	19:00	22s	19s	32	0.611	2
04:00	20:00	31s 17c	25s	28	0.668	3
05:00	21:00	26s 25c	22s	31	0.632	4
06:00	22:00	24s 58c	18s 50c	30	0.597	4
07:00	23:00	23s 75c	18s 50c	29	0.593	4
08:00	00:00	24s 92c	18s 67c	33	0.608	3
09:00	01:00	24s 67c	19s 33c	28	0.621	3
10:00	02:00	22s 38c	18s 50c	20	0.611	4
11:00	03:00	20s	19s 33c	22	0.560	3
12:00	04:00	25s	25s	16	0.750	1
13:00	05:00	22s	21s	22	0.670	2
14:00	06:00	39s 67c	36s 33c	14	1.116	3
15:00	07:00	47s	36s 50c	15	1.290	2
16:00	08:00	37s 83c	30s 67c	16	1.093	3
17:00	09:00	36s 11c	29s 33c	16	1.075	3
18:00	10:00	65s	61s	13	1.210	3
19:00	11:00	64s 83c	60s	16	1.245	3
20:00	12:00	1g 12s 83c	55s	20	2.566	3
21:00	13:00	84s 50c	75s	22	1.441	2
22:00	14:00	60s 67c	56s	24	1.241	3
23:00	15:00	64s	45s 50c	28	1.464	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/2034 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 Scholarly Robes?: On PvP Alliance US, Scholarly Robes is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 336% 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.