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, Gooey Spider Leg is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific) and dearest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 337% 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

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 Pacific · index 0.817 · typical 9s 63c

Best hours to sell

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

04:00 to 07:00 Pacific · index 1.526 · typical 35s 32c

Spread after the 5% cut

+337%

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

Gooey Spider Legby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	4s 98c	4s 31c	129	0.811	3
01:00	17:00	3s 84c	3s 3c	90	1.389	3
02:00	18:00	1s 76c	1s 49c	163	0.931	2
03:00	19:00	1s 81c	1s 53c	139	0.998	2
04:00	20:00	4s 51c	3s 5c	127	0.927	3
05:00	21:00	4s 81c	3s 94c	168	1.060	4
06:00	22:00	3s 95c	2s 61c	176	0.950	4
07:00	23:00	3s 76c	2s 52c	209	0.946	4
08:00	00:00	4s 70c	3s 36c	212	1.048	3
09:00	01:00	5s 71c	4s 62c	165	0.827	4
10:00	02:00	4s 49c	3s 90c	143	0.788	5
11:00	03:00	3s 81c	2s 66c	225	0.998	3
12:00	04:00	52s 48c	52s 7c	85	1.862	2
13:00	05:00	35s 65c	35s 34c	96	1.586	3
14:00	06:00	17s 82c	10s 31c	135	1.130	4
15:00	07:00	13s 16c	12s 47c	133	0.951	3
16:00	08:00	10s 85c	10s 18c	133	0.908	4
17:00	09:00	8s 26c	7s 86c	116	0.835	4
18:00	10:00	10s 32c	10s 9c	95	0.794	3
19:00	11:00	10s 30c	5s 7c	86	0.823	3
20:00	12:00	9s 61c	6s 40c	130	0.922	3
21:00	13:00	10s 95c	6s 30c	69	0.842	2
22:00	14:00	6s 5c	5s 47c	81	0.740	3
23:00	15:00	5s 46c	4s 91c	102	0.932	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/2251 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 Gooey Spider Leg?: On PvP Alliance US, Gooey Spider Leg is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific) and dearest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 337% 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.