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 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 PvP Alliance US, Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 27 is cheapest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 Pacific) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 170% after the 5 percent cut.

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

10:00 to 13:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 Pacific · index 0.539 · typical 13s 90c

Best hours to sell

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 Pacific · index 1.254 · typical 37s

Spread after the 5% cut

+170%

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 27by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	9s 61c	9s 57c	60	1.002	2
01:00	17:00	10s 52c	9s 57c	59	1.169	2
02:00	18:00	9s 57c	9s 56c	65	1.026	2
03:00	19:00	9s 57c	9s 28c	67	1.047	2
04:00	20:00	9s 57c	8s 93c	65	1.070	2
05:00	21:00	23s 4c	11s 62c	56	1.087	3
06:00	22:00	22s 97c	11s 28c	53	1.136	3
07:00	23:00	21s 95c	10s 61c	59	1.104	3
08:00	00:00	22s 78c	13s 76c	66	1.041	2
09:00	01:00	14s 18c	13s 51c	46	0.600	3
10:00	02:00	12s 52c	11s 93c	32	0.739	4
11:00	03:00	14s 17c	12s 16c	50	0.646	3
12:00	04:00	15s	15s	1	0.231	1
13:00	05:00	7s 50c	7s 48c	72	0.791	1
14:00	06:00	40s 83c	37s 83c	45	1.041	3
15:00	07:00	11s 25c	10s 74c	66	0.816	2
16:00	08:00	40s 83c	40s 46c	43	1.075	3
17:00	09:00	40s 83c	40s 13c	34	1.106	3
18:00	10:00	57s 50c	56s 50c	32	1.233	2
19:00	11:00	57s 50c	57s	30	1.291	2
20:00	12:00	10s 45c	9s 61c	58	0.987	2
21:00	13:00	13s 99c	13s 89c	58	1.054	1
22:00	14:00	56s 95c	56s 90c	41	1.412	2
23:00	15:00	40s 7c	38s 4c	51	1.295	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.us/2751 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.025	0.959	4
01:00	17:00	1.082	0.840	3
02:00	18:00	0.993	1.061	3
03:00	19:00	1.011	1.016	3
04:00	20:00	0.995	1.074	4
05:00	21:00	1.000	1.092	5
06:00	22:00	1.020	1.143	4
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.194	5
08:00	00:00	1.011	1.116	4
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.133	4
10:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	5
11:00	03:00	0.999	1.090	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.987	2
13:00	05:00	0.990	0.984	3
14:00	06:00	0.995	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	0.973	0.963	3
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.938	4
17:00	09:00	0.974	0.888	4
18:00	10:00	0.977	0.935	3
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.902	3
20:00	12:00	0.984	0.913	3
21:00	13:00	0.992	0.839	2
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.927	3
23:00	15:00	1.003	0.962	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 Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 27?: On PvP Alliance US, Green Hills of Stranglethorn - Page 27 is cheapest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 Pacific) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 170% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.