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, Pattern: Defender's Leather Armor is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 782% 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

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 CET · index 0.817 · typical 22s 22c

Best hours to sell

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 CET · index 1.423 · typical 1g 91s 37c

Spread after the 5% cut

+782%

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.

Pattern: Defender's Leather Armorby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	2g	1g 25s	16	0.963	1
01:00	02:00	82s	55s	20	0.843	3
02:00	03:00	27s	23s 50c	17	1.027	2
03:00	04:00	26s 75c	23s 50c	18	1.018	2
04:00	05:00	26s	24s	19	0.967	2
05:00	06:00	75s	62s	23	0.798	2
06:00	07:00	50s 50c	38s 75c	19	0.899	4
07:00	08:00	53s 38c	41s 75c	17	1.010	4
08:00	09:00	53s	40s	14	1.089	4
09:00	10:00	44s 50c	43s 25c	13	1.033	4
10:00	11:00	43s 83c	26s 25c	14	1.016	4
11:00	12:00	43s 25c	42s	16	1.007	4
12:00	13:00	24s	23s 50c	11	0.595	2
13:00	14:00	47s	38s	27	1.039	3
14:00	15:00	28s	24s 50c	29	1.108	2
15:00	16:00	28s	23s 50c	31	1.110	2
16:00	17:00	48s 50c	38s 75c	28	0.815	4
17:00	18:00	1g 96s 89c	38s	23	1.315	3
18:00	19:00	25s	23s	33	0.978	2
19:00	20:00	3g 52s 22c	1g 17s	19	1.976	3
20:00	21:00	23s	22s 50c	30	0.863	2
21:00	22:00	15s	15s	23	0.697	1
22:00	23:00	28s 67c	24s 33c	32	0.890	3
23:00	00:00	93s 11c	73s 67c	21	0.944	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/252773 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.999	1.123	1
01:00	02:00	1.013	1.062	4
02:00	03:00	1.056	1.023	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	1.017	2
04:00	05:00	1.041	1.000	3
05:00	06:00	1.055	0.794	2
06:00	07:00	1.023	0.843	5
07:00	08:00	1.042	0.789	5
08:00	09:00	1.026	0.838	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.882	5
10:00	11:00	1.031	0.913	5
11:00	12:00	0.983	1.040	5
12:00	13:00	0.977	0.873	2
13:00	14:00	0.985	1.003	3
14:00	15:00	0.982	1.004	3
15:00	16:00	0.975	1.048	3
16:00	17:00	0.966	1.074	4
17:00	18:00	0.962	1.087	3
18:00	19:00	0.952	1.128	2
19:00	20:00	1.002	1.025	3
20:00	21:00	0.962	1.153	2
21:00	22:00	0.954	1.066	1
22:00	23:00	0.961	1.143	3
23:00	00:00	1.005	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 Pattern: Defender's Leather Armor?: On PvP Alliance EU, Pattern: Defender's Leather Armor is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 782% 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.