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, Herb Pouch is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 39% 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

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 Pacific · index 0.903 · typical 14s 20c

Best hours to sell

03:00 to 06:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 Pacific · index 1.181 · typical 19s 7c

Spread after the 5% cut

+39%

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.

Herb Pouchby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	14s	11s 75c	117	0.907	4
01:00	17:00	15s	14s 33c	82	0.962	3
02:00	18:00	15s 50c	11s 75c	106	1.000	4
03:00	19:00	17s 8c	13s 75c	88	1.107	4
04:00	20:00	20s 50c	18s 25c	69	1.244	4
05:00	21:00	19s 63c	16s 75c	68	1.193	4
06:00	22:00	17s 50c	15s 80c	87	1.091	5
07:00	23:00	16s	14s 50c	112	1.031	2
08:00	00:00	14s	14s	120	1.013	1
09:00	01:00	15s 50c	14s 50c	101	1.008	2
10:00	02:00	17s 17c	15s	74	1.059	3
11:00	03:00	16s 33c	15s 67c	81	1.014	3
12:00	04:00	17s	17s	52	0.973	1
13:00	05:00	13s	12s	187	0.974	1
14:00	06:00	15s 50c	14s 75c	130	0.988	4
15:00	07:00	15s	13s	147	0.977	3
16:00	08:00	16s	14s 50c	107	0.982	2
17:00	09:00	15s 13c	13s 50c	136	0.958	4
18:00	10:00	14s 75c	12s 75c	135	0.940	4
19:00	11:00	13s 94c	12s 33c	136	0.901	3
20:00	12:00	14s 67c	13s	75	0.927	3
21:00	13:00	14s	13s 67c	105	0.882	3
22:00	14:00	14s 25c	13s	125	0.918	4
23:00	15:00	15s	13s 50c	98	0.952	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.alliance.us/22250 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.999	1.031	4
01:00	17:00	0.992	1.055	4
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.119	5
03:00	19:00	0.998	1.158	4
04:00	20:00	0.994	1.182	4
05:00	21:00	1.007	1.211	4
06:00	22:00	1.014	1.255	5
07:00	23:00	0.955	0.998	3
08:00	00:00	0.968	1.133	1
09:00	01:00	0.966	1.140	2
10:00	02:00	0.974	1.077	3
11:00	03:00	0.991	1.040	3
12:00	04:00	1.105	0.795	1
13:00	05:00	0.985	0.943	1
14:00	06:00	1.009	0.896	4
15:00	07:00	1.000	0.848	3
16:00	08:00	1.046	0.809	2
17:00	09:00	0.999	0.833	4
18:00	10:00	0.990	0.847	4
19:00	11:00	1.018	0.869	3
20:00	12:00	0.982	0.936	3
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.947	3
22:00	14:00	1.028	0.908	4
23:00	15:00	0.994	0.970	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 Herb Pouch?: On Normal Alliance US, Herb Pouch is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 39% 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.