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, Cross Dagger is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 92% 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

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 CET · index 0.772 · typical 48s 96c

Best hours to sell

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 CET · index 1.131 · typical 78s 91c

Spread after the 5% cut

+92%

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.

Cross Daggerby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	1g 15s	1g 15s	2	1.097	1
01:00	02:00	80s	59s	23	0.958	3
02:00	03:00	75s	39s	31	1.065	2
03:00	04:00	81s 75c	39s	30	1.172	2
04:00	05:00	64s 50c	39s	28	1.135	2
05:00	06:00	94s 50c	76s 50c	12	1.040	2
06:00	07:00	74s 50c	54s	17	1.048	4
07:00	08:00	73s 6c	54s	15	1.031	4
08:00	09:00	80s 55c	54s	16	1.141	4
09:00	10:00	73s 75c	51s 75c	18	1.045	4
10:00	11:00	82s 44c	51s 75c	18	1.207	4
11:00	12:00	73s 92c	53s 75c	21	1.041	4
12:00	13:00	55s	39s	25	0.908	1
13:00	14:00	69s 67c	59s	21	0.920	3
14:00	15:00	62s 50c	39s	27	0.985	2
15:00	16:00	72s	39s	29	1.147	2
16:00	17:00	79s	40s 67c	25	1.086	3
17:00	18:00	65s 10c	39s	27	1.052	2
18:00	19:00	49s 50c	39s	27	0.809	2
19:00	20:00	51s 64c	39s	23	0.853	2
20:00	21:00	46s	39s	30	0.772	2
21:00	22:00	45s	39s	17	0.724	1
22:00	23:00	55s 89c	39s	33	0.821	3
23:00	00:00	71s 67c	64s 33c	22	0.943	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/2819 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.999	1.123	1
01:00	02:00	1.013	1.062	4
02:00	03:00	1.056	1.023	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	1.017	2
04:00	05:00	1.041	1.000	3
05:00	06:00	1.055	0.794	2
06:00	07:00	1.023	0.843	5
07:00	08:00	1.042	0.789	5
08:00	09:00	1.026	0.838	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.882	5
10:00	11:00	1.031	0.913	5
11:00	12:00	0.983	1.040	5
12:00	13:00	0.977	0.873	2
13:00	14:00	0.985	1.003	3
14:00	15:00	0.982	1.004	3
15:00	16:00	0.975	1.048	3
16:00	17:00	0.966	1.074	4
17:00	18:00	0.962	1.087	3
18:00	19:00	0.952	1.128	2
19:00	20:00	1.002	1.025	3
20:00	21:00	0.962	1.153	2
21:00	22:00	0.954	1.066	1
22:00	23:00	0.961	1.143	3
23:00	00:00	1.005	1.075	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 Cross Dagger?: On PvP Alliance EU, Cross Dagger is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 92% 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.