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, Item 285094 is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 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 273% 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

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 0.476 · typical 5g 33s 33c

Best hours to sell

10:00 to 13:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 CET · index 1.286 · typical 20g 94s

Spread after the 5% cut

+273%

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 0 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Item 285094by hour · Normal Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	12g	11g 99s	4	1.065	1
02:00	03:00	2g	2g	5	0.180	1
03:00	04:00	2g	2g	5	0.183	1
04:00	05:00	12g	2g	3	1.118	1
05:00	06:00	23g 76s	19g 49s	3	1.193	2
06:00	07:00	20g 99s	19g 49s	4	1.121	2
07:00	08:00	8g 50s	5g	3	0.842	1
08:00	09:00	17g 49s	17g 49s	3	0.848	2
09:00	10:00	20g 94s	13g 94s	3	1.218	2
10:00	11:00	20g 94s	13g 94s	4	1.239	2
11:00	12:00	20g 94s	13g 94s	4	1.289	2
12:00	13:00	20g 94s	13g 94s	5	1.331	2
13:00	14:00	13g 94s	13g 94s	6	1.006	2
14:00	15:00	13g 94s	13g 94s	6	1.032	2
15:00	16:00	13g 94s	13g 50s	6	1.029	2
16:00	17:00	13g 94s	13g 50s	7	1.013	2
17:00	18:00	13g 64s	11g 45s	8	0.995	2
18:00	19:00	22g 51s	18g 81s	6	1.043	3
19:00	20:00	21g 50s	17g 17s	8	1.000	3
20:00	21:00	21g 48s	16g 17s	9	1.012	3
21:00	22:00	40g 53s	37g 53s	4	1.153	1
22:00	23:00	25g 71s	21g 61s	10	1.093	2
23:00	00:00	20g 65s	18g 41s	9	0.997	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/285094 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.975	1.242	1
01:00	02:00	0.985	1.019	3
02:00	03:00	0.984	1.040	3
03:00	04:00	1.053	0.889	4
04:00	05:00	0.981	0.844	4
05:00	06:00	0.996	0.838	4
06:00	07:00	1.022	0.785	6
07:00	08:00	0.984	0.814	3
08:00	09:00	1.012	0.757	6
09:00	10:00	1.035	0.764	6
10:00	11:00	1.014	0.811	6
11:00	12:00	0.997	0.879	3
12:00	13:00	1.015	0.870	6
13:00	14:00	1.019	0.975	6
14:00	15:00	0.987	1.027	5
15:00	16:00	0.985	1.074	6
16:00	17:00	1.022	1.053	5
17:00	18:00	1.001	1.023	5
18:00	19:00	0.974	1.201	4
19:00	20:00	1.000	1.140	5
20:00	21:00	0.981	1.215	5
21:00	22:00	0.968	1.181	3
22:00	23:00	0.966	1.357	4
23:00	00:00	1.044	1.201	5

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 285094?: On Normal Horde EU, Item 285094 is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 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 273% 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.