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 RP PvP Horde 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 RP PvP Horde US, Rotmender's Sash is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 Pacific) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 52% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: RP PvP Horde US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/rppvp/horde/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

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

08:00 to 11:00 Pacific · index 0.940 · typical 34s 48c

Best hours to sell

03:00 to 06:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 Pacific · index 1.093 · typical 38s 39c

Spread after the 5% cut

+52%

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.

Rotmender's Sashby hour · RP PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	26s	24s 67c	10	1.056	3
01:00	17:00	59s	31s 50c	17	0.978	2
02:00	18:00	23s 33c	21s	26	0.959	3
03:00	19:00	34s 50c	34s 50c	24	1.226	2
04:00	20:00	51s 67c	30s 33c	16	1.005	3
05:00	21:00	29s	28s	23	1.048	3
06:00	22:00	26s 75c	21s	26	1.028	4
07:00	23:00	19s	16s	22	0.919	1
12:00	04:00	19s	18s	9	1.023	1
13:00	05:00	27s 50c	25s 50c	13	0.953	4
14:00	06:00	30s 17c	27s 33c	13	0.983	3
15:00	07:00	42s 93c	28s 80c	12	1.027	5
16:00	08:00	36s 25c	24s 67c	14	0.927	6
17:00	09:00	28s 60c	21s 67c	13	0.954	3
18:00	10:00	38s 60c	25s 49c	13	0.939	5
19:00	11:00	40s 17c	25s 20c	14	0.970	5
20:00	12:00	40s 28c	27s 47c	15	1.040	5
21:00	13:00	42s 38c	28s	13	0.989	4
22:00	14:00	51s 79c	31s	12	1.002	3
23:00	15:00	38s 7c	23s 60c	16	0.974	5

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.rppvp.horde.us/286980 on the API.

The whole market by hour · RP PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.012	0.834	3
01:00	17:00	1.024	1.064	2
02:00	18:00	0.977	1.058	4
03:00	19:00	1.150	0.918	3
04:00	20:00	0.974	1.191	3
05:00	21:00	1.002	1.206	3
06:00	22:00	1.024	1.127	4
07:00	23:00	0.956	1.160	1
12:00	04:00	0.973	0.874	1
13:00	05:00	0.992	0.871	4
14:00	06:00	0.984	0.904	3
15:00	07:00	1.004	0.897	5
16:00	08:00	0.992	0.903	6
17:00	09:00	0.982	0.915	3
18:00	10:00	0.984	0.979	5
19:00	11:00	0.992	0.949	5
20:00	12:00	1.030	1.025	5
21:00	13:00	0.978	1.027	4
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.986	3
23:00	15:00	0.974	1.112	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 Rotmender's Sash?: On RP PvP Horde US, Rotmender's Sash is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 Pacific) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 52% 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 RP PvP Horde US through the night fills the gaps.