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: Stormrider's Leather Armor is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 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 120% 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

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

08:00 to 11:00 CET · index 0.912 · typical 20s 42c

Best hours to sell

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 CET · index 1.088 · typical 42s 83c

Spread after the 5% cut

+120%

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: Stormrider's Leather Armorby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	77s 50c	65s	13	1.104	1
01:00	02:00	34s 33c	26s 67c	31	0.980	3
02:00	03:00	13s 50c	9s	34	0.958	2
03:00	04:00	12s	9s	30	0.884	2
04:00	05:00	10s	9s	20	0.937	2
05:00	06:00	36s 25c	27s 50c	20	0.976	2
06:00	07:00	23s	18s 50c	18	0.963	4
07:00	08:00	22s 75c	18s 50c	17	0.962	4
08:00	09:00	18s 75c	18s 50c	17	0.851	4
09:00	10:00	19s 75c	18s 50c	14	0.924	4
10:00	11:00	20s 25c	18s 50c	14	0.985	4
11:00	12:00	23s	20s 67c	15	0.964	3
12:00	13:00	10s 33c	10s	8	1.031	1
13:00	14:00	22s	18s 33c	18	0.994	3
14:00	15:00	41s 33c	40s 33c	9	1.080	3
15:00	16:00	41s	40s 33c	10	1.069	3
16:00	17:00	39s 75c	38s 25c	18	1.034	4
17:00	18:00	38s 33c	33s	14	1.054	3
18:00	19:00	11s 50c	11s	25	1.044	2
19:00	20:00	34s 56c	33s 67c	16	1.054	3
20:00	21:00	11s	9s 50c	29	1.010	2
21:00	22:00	11s	7s	33	0.981	1
22:00	23:00	16s 67c	11s	34	1.071	3
23:00	00:00	34s 33c	31s 33c	18	1.088	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/252775 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	1.109	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.050	4
02:00	03:00	1.044	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.037	1.005	3
05:00	06:00	1.065	0.787	2
06:00	07:00	1.026	0.845	5
07:00	08:00	1.040	0.797	5
08:00	09:00	1.022	0.854	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.906	5
10:00	11:00	1.044	0.920	5
11:00	12:00	0.998	0.902	4
12:00	13:00	0.985	0.879	2
13:00	14:00	0.991	1.004	3
14:00	15:00	0.989	1.018	3
15:00	16:00	0.984	1.066	3
16:00	17:00	0.968	1.087	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.104	3
18:00	19:00	0.959	1.143	2
19:00	20:00	0.995	1.027	3
20:00	21:00	0.950	1.170	2
21:00	22:00	0.944	1.085	1
22:00	23:00	0.949	1.148	3
23:00	00:00	1.000	1.086	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: Stormrider's Leather Armor?: On PvP Alliance EU, Pattern: Stormrider's Leather Armor is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 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 120% 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.