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 EU 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 EU, Blackfang is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 CET) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 50% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Alliance EU. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/alliance/eu

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

10:00 to 13:00 CET · index 0.937 · typical 1g 34s 34c

Best hours to sell

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 CET · index 1.079 · typical 2g 19c

Spread after the 5% cut

+50%

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.

Blackfangby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	2g 99s	2g	8	1.119	1
01:00	02:00	1g 48s 33c	1g 32s 67c	10	0.901	3
02:00	03:00	1g 25s	1g 22s 50c	10	1.010	2
03:00	04:00	1g 25s	1g 17s 50c	10	1.016	2
04:00	05:00	1g 5s	99s 50c	22	0.955	2
05:00	06:00	1g 75s	1g 66s	6	1.014	2
06:00	07:00	1g 36s 56c	1g 32s 25c	9	0.970	4
07:00	08:00	1g 43s 44c	1g 40s	9	1.032	4
08:00	09:00	1g 40s 75c	1g 30s	9	1.023	4
09:00	10:00	1g 35s 63c	1g 28s 25c	12	0.987	4
10:00	11:00	1g 32s 38c	1g 31s 25c	10	0.966	4
11:00	12:00	1g 35s	1g 20s 80c	11	0.859	5
12:00	13:00	1g 26s	99s	17	1.086	1
13:00	14:00	1g 39s	1g 13s 33c	13	0.987	3
14:00	15:00	1g 13s 50c	99s 50c	16	0.969	2
15:00	16:00	1g 8s 50c	1g 3s	18	0.932	2
16:00	17:00	2g 12s	1g 94s	13	1.068	4
17:00	18:00	2g 19s 33c	2g 16s 33c	13	1.087	3
18:00	19:00	1g	73s 50c	19	0.875	2
19:00	20:00	2g 67c	1g 63s	8	1.080	3
20:00	21:00	1g 10s 50c	1g	7	0.979	2
21:00	22:00	1g 5s 60c	1g	8	0.969	1
22:00	23:00	1g 18s 67c	97s 67c	10	0.984	3
23:00	00:00	1g 82s 89c	1g 33s 33c	13	1.134	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.eu/2236 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.996	1.127	1
01:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	4
02:00	03:00	1.053	1.020	3
03:00	04:00	1.036	1.010	2
04:00	05:00	1.039	1.003	3
05:00	06:00	1.065	0.795	2
06:00	07:00	1.026	0.842	5
07:00	08:00	1.044	0.792	5
08:00	09:00	1.023	0.842	5
09:00	10:00	1.014	0.884	5
10:00	11:00	1.029	0.915	5
11:00	12:00	0.979	1.027	5
12:00	13:00	0.978	0.871	2
13:00	14:00	0.986	1.002	3
14:00	15:00	0.978	1.003	3
15:00	16:00	0.974	1.051	3
16:00	17:00	0.966	1.078	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.091	3
18:00	19:00	0.956	1.129	2
19:00	20:00	1.002	1.019	3
20:00	21:00	0.968	1.156	2
21:00	22:00	0.951	1.064	1
22:00	23:00	0.959	1.146	3
23:00	00:00	1.007	1.075	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 Blackfang?: On PvP Alliance EU, Blackfang is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 CET) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 50% 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 EU through the night fills the gaps.