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, Sagefish Delight is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 76% 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

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 Pacific · index 0.831 · typical 6s 59c

Best hours to sell

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 Pacific · index 1.247 · typical 11s 98c

Spread after the 5% cut

+76%

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.

Sagefish Delightby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	5s 74c	5s 62c	31	1.014	2
01:00	17:00	7s 98c	6s 33c	24	1.054	3
02:00	18:00	5s 65c	5s	34	1.016	2
03:00	19:00	5s 64c	4s 90c	35	1.030	2
04:00	20:00	5s 54c	4s 58c	38	1.027	2
05:00	21:00	6s 15c	4s 75c	30	0.914	3
06:00	22:00	5s 95c	4s 63c	26	0.905	3
07:00	23:00	5s 76c	5s 68c	22	0.894	3
08:00	00:00	7s 5c	6s 77c	12	0.803	3
09:00	01:00	6s 97c	6s 93c	9	0.797	3
10:00	02:00	6s 8c	5s 76c	10	0.992	3
11:00	03:00	6s 39c	4s 89c	14	0.914	2
13:00	05:00	6s 49c	6s 38c	7	0.772	2
14:00	06:00	6s 39c	6s 28c	9	0.988	2
15:00	07:00	6s 28c	6s 12c	19	0.980	2
16:00	08:00	6s 27c	6s 12c	21	0.994	2
17:00	09:00	10s 18c	10s 6c	12	1.158	3
18:00	10:00	12s 88c	12s 60c	8	1.276	2
19:00	11:00	12s 88c	12s 60c	9	1.307	2
20:00	12:00	5s 84c	5s 80c	17	0.985	2
21:00	13:00	7s 20c	7s 20c	20	1.028	1
22:00	14:00	10s 10c	9s 50c	16	1.092	2
23:00	15:00	8s 12c	6s 76c	20	1.061	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.us/21217 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 Sagefish Delight?: On PvP Alliance US, Sagefish Delight is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 76% 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.