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, Item 281925 is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET) and dearest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 83% 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

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 CET · index 0.781 · typical 38s 80c

Best hours to sell

10:00 to 13:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 CET · index 1.137 · typical 59s 57c

Spread after the 5% cut

+83%

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.

Item 281925by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	44s	29s	24	0.678	1
01:00	02:00	38s 67c	23s	24	0.969	3
02:00	03:00	34s	22s 50c	19	0.998	2
03:00	04:00	33s 50c	22s 50c	19	0.980	2
04:00	05:00	35s	25s	13	0.761	2
05:00	06:00	29s 25c	27s 50c	11	0.816	2
06:00	07:00	57s 56c	52s 25c	11	1.161	4
07:00	08:00	55s	52s 50c	8	1.068	4
08:00	09:00	54s 88c	52s 25c	10	1.060	4
09:00	10:00	55s 25c	53s 75c	9	1.049	4
10:00	11:00	37s 67c	31s	11	1.085	3
11:00	12:00	58s 38c	52s 25c	11	1.088	4
12:00	13:00	82s 67c	75s	8	1.239	2
13:00	14:00	31s 40c	26s 33c	20	0.929	3
14:00	15:00	61s 33c	55s	14	1.054	3
15:00	16:00	60s 33c	48s 33c	17	1.021	3
16:00	17:00	49s 75c	45s 75c	18	0.978	4
17:00	18:00	56s 75c	35s	16	1.036	3
18:00	19:00	39s 50c	36s 50c	20	1.055	2
19:00	20:00	59s 67c	38s	14	1.091	3
20:00	21:00	39s 50c	35s	16	0.955	2
21:00	22:00	49s	42s	17	1.264	1
22:00	23:00	32s 72c	29s 67c	16	0.889	3
23:00	00:00	39s 67c	34s 33c	17	0.778	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/281925 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.986	1.122	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.051	4
02:00	03:00	1.049	1.009	3
03:00	04:00	1.033	0.997	2
04:00	05:00	1.043	1.023	3
05:00	06:00	1.061	0.800	2
06:00	07:00	1.027	0.870	5
07:00	08:00	1.040	0.815	5
08:00	09:00	1.025	0.880	5
09:00	10:00	1.007	0.934	5
10:00	11:00	1.037	0.813	4
11:00	12:00	0.990	0.899	4
12:00	13:00	0.983	0.871	2
13:00	14:00	0.988	0.987	3
14:00	15:00	0.986	1.009	3
15:00	16:00	0.979	1.063	3
16:00	17:00	0.970	1.089	4
17:00	18:00	0.960	1.114	3
18:00	19:00	0.960	1.154	2
19:00	20:00	0.991	1.039	3
20:00	21:00	0.955	1.159	2
21:00	22:00	0.964	1.073	1
22:00	23:00	0.955	1.144	3
23:00	00:00	1.002	1.085	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 Item 281925?: On PvP Alliance EU, Item 281925 is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET) and dearest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 83% 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.