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, Thunder Ale is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 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 156% 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

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 CET · index 0.734 · typical 1s 46c

Best hours to sell

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 CET · index 1.446 · typical 3s 79c

Spread after the 5% cut

+156%

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.

Thunder Aleby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	99c	90c	9	1.036	1
01:00	02:00	1s 98c	1s 91c	9	1.097	3
02:00	03:00	2s 42c	2s 42c	11	1.097	2
03:00	04:00	2s 42c	2s 42c	10	1.086	2
04:00	05:00	2s 10c	2s 3c	10	0.976	3
05:00	06:00	94c	94c	5	0.974	2
06:00	07:00	1s 64c	1s 60c	7	0.975	5
07:00	08:00	1s 64c	1s 40c	7	0.939	5
08:00	09:00	1s 64c	1s 40c	7	0.930	5
09:00	10:00	1s 64c	1s 39c	7	0.926	5
10:00	11:00	1s 64c	1s 32c	8	0.923	5
11:00	12:00	1s 37c	1s 36c	8	0.846	4
12:00	13:00	1s 74c	1s 55c	13	0.918	2
13:00	14:00	1s 47c	1s 45c	14	0.784	3
14:00	15:00	1s 48c	1s 46c	13	0.766	3
15:00	16:00	1s 42c	1s 16c	15	0.741	3
16:00	17:00	1s 32c	1s 31c	16	0.824	4
17:00	18:00	1s 42c	1s 36c	14	0.754	3
18:00	19:00	1s 63c	1s 55c	17	0.624	2
19:00	20:00	2s 76c	2s 63c	12	1.266	3
20:00	21:00	3s 64c	2s 75c	16	1.373	2
21:00	22:00	4s 98c	3s	8	1.700	1
22:00	23:00	2s 76c	1s 83c	15	1.244	3
23:00	00:00	2s 66c	1s 73c	16	1.203	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/2686 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 Thunder Ale?: On PvP Alliance EU, Thunder Ale is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 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 156% 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.