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 Horde 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 Horde EU, Crab Cake is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 161% after the 5 percent cut.

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

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 CET · index 0.838 · typical 3s 88c

Best hours to sell

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 CET · index 1.212 · typical 9s 14c

Spread after the 5% cut

+161%

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.

Crab Cakeby hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	5s 2c	4s 60c	39	0.832	3
01:00	02:00	5s 5c	4s 52c	49	0.881	3
02:00	03:00	5s 5c	3s 43c	50	0.927	3
03:00	04:00	5s 15c	3s 83c	37	1.024	3
04:00	05:00	3s 22c	1s 50c	25	0.933	2
05:00	06:00	8s 30c	5s 30c	27	1.013	1
06:00	07:00	6s 15c	4s 65c	23	1.022	2
07:00	08:00	4s 1c	3s 49c	22	0.916	3
08:00	09:00	3s 93c	3s 43c	21	0.865	3
09:00	10:00	4s 27c	3s 20c	14	0.811	4
10:00	11:00	3s 44c	3s 35c	21	0.839	3
11:00	12:00	10s 6c	9s 93c	22	1.018	4
12:00	13:00	9s 88c	4s 98c	23	1.210	4
13:00	14:00	9s 57c	9s 23c	25	1.069	4
14:00	15:00	9s 57c	9s 22c	27	1.104	4
15:00	16:00	3s 39c	2s 58c	36	0.939	3
16:00	17:00	8s 5c	6s 31c	39	1.042	3
17:00	18:00	7s 91c	3s 40c	41	1.022	3
18:00	19:00	4s 35c	2s 75c	47	1.071	2
19:00	20:00	4s 29c	3s 25c	49	1.090	2
20:00	21:00	7s 74c	4s 98c	43	1.060	3
21:00	22:00	15s 40c	14s 99c	44	1.487	2
22:00	23:00	3s 62c	3s 23c	58	0.957	2
23:00	00:00	5s 24c	4s 93c	45	0.866	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.horde.eu/2683 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.999	1.111	4
01:00	02:00	0.964	1.108	4
02:00	03:00	0.960	1.116	3
03:00	04:00	1.030	0.827	3
04:00	05:00	1.112	0.834	4
05:00	06:00	1.019	0.815	2
06:00	07:00	1.035	0.836	3
07:00	08:00	1.019	0.743	4
08:00	09:00	1.002	0.829	5
09:00	10:00	1.040	0.814	5
10:00	11:00	1.015	0.898	5
11:00	12:00	1.013	0.953	5
12:00	13:00	1.001	1.024	5
13:00	14:00	1.002	1.112	5
14:00	15:00	0.973	1.193	5
15:00	16:00	0.957	1.202	5
16:00	17:00	1.014	1.050	4
17:00	18:00	0.948	1.086	4
18:00	19:00	0.934	1.123	3
19:00	20:00	0.928	1.148	3
20:00	21:00	1.007	1.048	4
21:00	22:00	0.999	0.941	3
22:00	23:00	1.025	1.118	3
23:00	00:00	1.005	1.073	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 Crab Cake?: On PvP Horde EU, Crab Cake is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 161% 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 Horde EU through the night fills the gaps.