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 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 Horde US, Sentry Cloak is cheapest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 Pacific) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 21% after the 5 percent cut.

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

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

04:00 to 07:00 Pacific · index 0.885 · typical 1g 7s 44c

Best hours to sell

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

10:00 to 13:00 Pacific · index 1.175 · typical 1g 33s 50c

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

Sentry Cloakby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	97s 56c	87s	18	0.937	3
01:00	17:00	93s	82s 50c	21	0.969	2
02:00	18:00	2g 31s 83c	2g 20s	15	1.095	3
03:00	19:00	71s	65s	13	0.885	1
04:00	20:00	2g 23s 67c	2g 11s 67c	16	1.007	3
05:00	21:00	88s 33c	86s	18	0.880	3
06:00	22:00	97s	96s	17	0.873	2
07:00	23:00	90s	83s	15	0.969	2
08:00	00:00	91s 33c	90s	14	0.943	3
09:00	01:00	1g 11s	1g 11s	7	1.179	3
10:00	02:00	1g 3s 50c	1g 3s 50c	10	1.127	2
11:00	03:00	2g 57s	1g 72s	11	1.169	2
12:00	04:00	87s	82s	12	0.878	2
13:00	05:00	94s	94s	13	0.867	1
14:00	06:00	1g 41s 33c	1g 37s 67c	10	0.909	3
15:00	07:00	80s	70s	8	0.941	1
16:00	08:00	94s	94s	5	0.871	1
17:00	09:00	94s	94s	10	0.875	1
18:00	10:00	1g 14s 50c	1g 14s 50c	9	1.178	2
19:00	11:00	1g 59s 67c	1g 48s	8	1.257	3
20:00	12:00	1g 26s 33c	98s	12	1.091	3
21:00	13:00	1g 21s 67c	98s	14	1.064	3
22:00	14:00	1g 16s	84s 67c	18	1.023	3
23:00	15:00	97s	91s	15	1.014	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.horde.us/2059 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.991	1.028	4
01:00	17:00	1.004	1.005	3
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.030	4
03:00	19:00	1.006	1.060	2
04:00	20:00	0.986	1.128	4
05:00	21:00	0.988	1.185	4
06:00	22:00	0.989	1.081	3
07:00	23:00	0.981	1.300	3
08:00	00:00	0.974	1.290	3
09:00	01:00	1.212	1.051	3
10:00	02:00	1.002	1.214	2
11:00	03:00	1.044	0.967	3
12:00	04:00	0.989	0.991	3
13:00	05:00	1.026	0.877	2
14:00	06:00	0.983	0.884	4
15:00	07:00	0.957	0.855	2
16:00	08:00	0.992	0.839	1
17:00	09:00	0.978	0.854	1
18:00	10:00	0.953	0.903	3
19:00	11:00	0.983	0.798	4
20:00	12:00	1.004	0.738	4
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.935	3
22:00	14:00	0.988	0.967	3
23:00	15:00	0.982	1.019	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 Sentry Cloak?: On Normal Horde US, Sentry Cloak is cheapest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 Pacific) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 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 Horde US through the night fills the gaps.