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 284166 is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 173% 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

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 0.535 · typical 15s 44c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 CET · index 1.290 · typical 42s 78c

Spread after the 5% cut

+173%

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 284166by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	15s	11s	32	0.663	1
01:00	02:00	15s 33c	13s 67c	16	0.603	3
02:00	03:00	15s 50c	15s 50c	8	0.498	2
03:00	04:00	15s 50c	15s 50c	8	0.505	2
04:00	05:00	47s 67c	46s	6	1.101	3
05:00	06:00	11s 25c	10s 50c	13	0.635	2
06:00	07:00	32s	30s 80c	8	0.939	5
07:00	08:00	32s	27s 20c	9	0.968	5
08:00	09:00	30s 80c	27s 20c	9	0.965	5
09:00	10:00	43s 40c	38s 40c	12	1.334	5
10:00	11:00	39s 40c	34s 20c	14	1.243	5
11:00	12:00	39s 20c	34s	15	1.242	5
12:00	13:00	48s 50c	29s	24	1.242	2
13:00	14:00	31s 33c	27s 33c	14	1.273	3
14:00	15:00	49s 33c	30s 33c	21	1.315	3
15:00	16:00	47s 67c	29s 67c	21	1.281	3
16:00	17:00	31s 56c	21s 75c	20	1.101	4
17:00	18:00	32s 73c	25s 33c	22	0.998	3
18:00	19:00	36s	25s	11	1.208	2
19:00	20:00	30s 31c	22s	18	0.925	3
20:00	21:00	30s	17s 50c	11	1.002	2
21:00	22:00	46s 80c	20s	13	1.124	1
22:00	23:00	23s 67c	14s	13	0.888	3
23:00	00:00	26s	15s	17	0.947	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/284166 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.996	1.109	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.050	4
02:00	03:00	1.044	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.037	1.005	3
05:00	06:00	1.065	0.787	2
06:00	07:00	1.026	0.845	5
07:00	08:00	1.040	0.797	5
08:00	09:00	1.022	0.854	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.906	5
10:00	11:00	1.044	0.920	5
11:00	12:00	0.998	0.902	4
12:00	13:00	0.985	0.879	2
13:00	14:00	0.991	1.004	3
14:00	15:00	0.989	1.018	3
15:00	16:00	0.984	1.066	3
16:00	17:00	0.968	1.087	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.104	3
18:00	19:00	0.959	1.143	2
19:00	20:00	0.995	1.027	3
20:00	21:00	0.950	1.170	2
21:00	22:00	0.944	1.085	1
22:00	23:00	0.949	1.148	3
23:00	00:00	1.000	1.086	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 284166?: On PvP Alliance EU, Item 284166 is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 173% 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.