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 Normal Horde 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 Normal Horde US, Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 14 is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 106% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Horde US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/horde/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 0.743 · typical 8s 50c

Best hours to sell

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 Pacific · index 1.342 · typical 17s 89c

Spread after the 5% cut

+106%

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.

Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 14by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	12s 63c	12s 28c	35	0.912	3
01:00	17:00	6s 95c	6s 44c	47	0.900	2
02:00	18:00	7s 92c	6s 44c	36	1.096	2
03:00	19:00	4s 33c	4s	45	0.852	1
04:00	20:00	6s 45c	6s 44c	46	0.864	2
05:00	21:00	12s 29c	10s 93c	34	0.970	3
06:00	22:00	16s 44c	16s 43c	34	1.074	2
07:00	23:00	6s 44c	6s 42c	56	0.906	2
08:00	00:00	12s 29c	12s 27c	43	1.033	3
09:00	01:00	15s 66c	11s 33c	30	1.454	3
10:00	02:00	14s	9s 50c	27	1.129	2
11:00	03:00	24s	15s	26	1.441	1
12:00	04:00	16s 42c	9s 4c	52	1.289	2
13:00	05:00	15s	10s	38	0.970	1
14:00	06:00	11s 91c	8s 1c	45	1.066	2
15:00	07:00	8s 81c	6s	58	1.176	1
16:00	08:00	15s	8s	26	1.012	1
17:00	09:00	10s	9s 90c	25	0.688	1
18:00	10:00	8s 1c	7s 45c	33	0.791	2
19:00	11:00	7s 50c	7s 45c	34	0.750	2
20:00	12:00	8s 98c	7s 95c	25	1.000	2
21:00	13:00	13s 30c	12s 63c	30	0.877	3
22:00	14:00	12s 96c	12s 30c	33	0.912	3
23:00	15:00	6s 95c	6s 45c	57	0.836	2

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.normal.horde.us/2738 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.991	1.028	4
01:00	17:00	1.004	1.005	3
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.030	4
03:00	19:00	1.006	1.060	2
04:00	20:00	0.986	1.128	4
05:00	21:00	0.988	1.185	4
06:00	22:00	0.989	1.081	3
07:00	23:00	0.981	1.300	3
08:00	00:00	0.974	1.290	3
09:00	01:00	1.212	1.051	3
10:00	02:00	1.002	1.214	2
11:00	03:00	1.044	0.967	3
12:00	04:00	0.989	0.991	3
13:00	05:00	1.026	0.877	2
14:00	06:00	0.983	0.884	4
15:00	07:00	0.957	0.855	2
16:00	08:00	0.992	0.839	1
17:00	09:00	0.978	0.854	1
18:00	10:00	0.953	0.903	3
19:00	11:00	0.983	0.798	4
20:00	12:00	1.004	0.738	4
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.935	3
22:00	14:00	0.988	0.967	3
23:00	15:00	0.982	1.019	2

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 Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 14?: On Normal Horde US, Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 14 is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 106% 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 Normal Horde US through the night fills the gaps.