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 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 Normal Horde EU, Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 18 is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 279% after the 5 percent cut.

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

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 CET · index 0.610 · typical 9s 89c

Best hours to sell

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 CET · index 1.272 · typical 37s 42c

Spread after the 5% cut

+279%

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 18by hour · Normal Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	14s	11s	89	0.525	1
01:00	02:00	98s	98s	4	1.179	1
02:00	03:00	11s	10s	96	0.507	1
03:00	04:00	58s 50c	54s	40	1.106	2
04:00	05:00	11s	10s	89	0.652	1
05:00	06:00	11s	10s	83	0.763	1
06:00	07:00	38s 16c	34s 24c	51	1.061	3
07:00	08:00	10s 45c	10s	54	0.949	1
08:00	09:00	37s 92c	30s 58c	57	1.193	3
09:00	10:00	38s 36c	30s 58c	44	1.275	3
10:00	11:00	36s 80c	30s 21c	48	1.245	3
11:00	12:00	7s 50c	6s 77c	66	1.081	2
12:00	13:00	42s 44c	39s 90c	52	1.147	2
13:00	14:00	32s 1c	29s 18c	40	1.355	3
14:00	15:00	29s 21c	22s 84c	58	1.161	3
15:00	16:00	40s 94c	11s 40c	61	1.210	2
16:00	17:00	42s 12c	9s 89c	62	1.445	2
17:00	18:00	31s 40c	10s 89c	63	1.115	2
18:00	19:00	31s 39c	6s 39c	88	1.152	2
19:00	20:00	24s 85c	6s 39c	56	1.214	2
20:00	21:00	9s 89c	9s 89c	72	0.578	2
21:00	22:00	9s 89c	9s 89c	79	0.607	2
22:00	23:00	9s 89c	8s 38c	92	0.646	2
23:00	00:00	39s 59c	38s 59c	65	0.836	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.normal.horde.eu/2742 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.980	1.234	1
01:00	02:00	1.014	1.023	2
02:00	03:00	1.002	1.146	2
03:00	04:00	1.108	0.893	3
04:00	05:00	1.018	0.886	3
05:00	06:00	1.005	0.865	2
06:00	07:00	1.046	0.783	5
07:00	08:00	0.994	0.782	2
08:00	09:00	1.023	0.741	5
09:00	10:00	1.041	0.743	5
10:00	11:00	1.030	0.846	5
11:00	12:00	1.018	0.981	2
12:00	13:00	0.976	0.936	4
13:00	14:00	1.048	1.080	5
14:00	15:00	0.965	1.174	4
15:00	16:00	0.955	1.092	4
16:00	17:00	1.054	0.936	3
17:00	18:00	0.979	0.927	3
18:00	19:00	0.944	1.144	2
19:00	20:00	0.992	1.055	3
20:00	21:00	0.956	1.159	3
21:00	22:00	0.953	1.178	3
22:00	23:00	0.939	1.200	3
23:00	00:00	0.961	1.197	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 Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 18?: On Normal Horde EU, Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 18 is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 279% 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 EU through the night fills the gaps.