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 Alliance 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 Alliance US, Death Bindings is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific) and dearest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 1364% after the 5 percent cut.

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

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 Pacific · index 0.731 · typical 50s 50c

Best hours to sell

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 Pacific · index 1.502 · typical 6g 87s 50c

Spread after the 5% cut

+1364%

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.

Death Bindingsby hour · RP PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	30s	30s	12	0.920	1
01:00	17:00	30s	28s	21	0.932	2
02:00	18:00	47s 50c	28s 75c	17	0.927	4
03:00	19:00	30s	27s 50c	20	0.953	2
04:00	20:00	29s 33c	28s 33c	17	0.928	3
05:00	21:00	26s	26s	13	0.924	2
06:00	22:00	28s 50c	27s	18	0.927	2
07:00	23:00	28s 50c	23s 50c	17	0.929	2
08:00	00:00	30s	30s	12	0.991	1
11:00	03:00	20g 9s	20g 9s	1	2.579	1
12:00	04:00	27s 50c	25s 50c	14	0.943	2
13:00	05:00	26s	22s 50c	9	0.983	2
14:00	06:00	28s 17c	21s 67c	11	0.977	3
15:00	07:00	26s	22s 50c	9	1.001	2
16:00	08:00	28s 56c	23s 13c	9	1.008	3
17:00	09:00	26s 33c	23s 13c	10	0.943	3
18:00	10:00	25s 33c	21s 80c	11	0.909	3
19:00	11:00	36s	32s	14	1.070	2
20:00	12:00	28s 25c	25s	12	0.946	2
21:00	13:00	57s	55s 33c	9	0.692	3
22:00	14:00	66s 25c	53s 50c	12	0.556	2
23:00	15:00	34s 50c	27s	18	0.963	2

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.alliance.us/286981 on the API.

The whole market by hour · RP PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.971	1.088	2
01:00	17:00	0.993	1.042	2
02:00	18:00	0.992	1.118	5
03:00	19:00	1.009	1.059	3
04:00	20:00	0.989	1.137	3
05:00	21:00	0.981	1.153	3
06:00	22:00	0.991	1.113	3
07:00	23:00	0.990	1.132	2
08:00	00:00	1.000	1.114	2
09:00	01:00	0.877	1.009	1
11:00	03:00	0.892	0.748	1
12:00	04:00	1.023	0.973	2
13:00	05:00	1.028	0.903	2
14:00	06:00	1.043	0.888	3
15:00	07:00	1.037	0.902	2
16:00	08:00	1.036	0.890	3
17:00	09:00	1.043	0.925	3
18:00	10:00	1.044	0.882	2
19:00	11:00	1.052	0.901	2
20:00	12:00	1.005	0.973	2
21:00	13:00	0.995	1.014	3
22:00	14:00	0.982	1.059	2
23:00	15:00	1.026	0.977	2

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 Death Bindings?: On RP PvP Alliance US, Death Bindings is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific) and dearest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 1364% 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 Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.