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 286989 is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 316% 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

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 0.775 · typical 2g 28s 49c

Best hours to sell

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 CET · index 1.244 · typical 7g 90s 33c

Spread after the 5% cut

+316%

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 286989by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	2g 83s 40c	2g 52s	9	1.000	2
02:00	03:00	2g 74s	2g 69s	10	0.980	2
03:00	04:00	2g 71s 25c	2g 59s	11	0.984	2
04:00	05:00	1g 60s 50c	1g 60s 50c	6	0.549	2
05:00	06:00	3g 40s	3g 20s	9	1.070	1
06:00	07:00	8g 52s	8g 47s	8	1.467	3
07:00	08:00	2g 66s 50c	2g 59s	8	1.029	2
08:00	09:00	6g 80s 33c	3g 14s 33c	7	1.177	3
09:00	10:00	8g 47s	6g 71s	7	1.280	3
10:00	11:00	8g 43s 67c	6g 57s	4	1.275	3
11:00	12:00	2g 53s 50c	2g 26s 50c	9	1.026	2
12:00	13:00	1g 97s	1g 96s	13	0.998	1
13:00	14:00	3g 9s 33c	3g 9s 33c	7	1.063	3
14:00	15:00	2g 52s 50c	2g 52s 50c	7	1.050	2
15:00	16:00	2g 51s 50c	2g 10s	11	1.058	2
16:00	17:00	3g 9s 33c	3g 1s	7	1.111	3
17:00	18:00	2g 51s 70c	2g 15s	7	1.084	2
18:00	19:00	2g 23s 84c	1g 98s	7	0.823	2
19:00	20:00	2g 52s 60c	1g 98s 50c	6	0.932	2
20:00	21:00	2g 16s 65c	1g 90s	11	0.722	2
21:00	22:00	2g 9s 20c	1g 20s	18	0.859	1
22:00	23:00	2g 51s 78c	2g 32s 67c	9	0.745	3
23:00	00:00	2g 24s 50c	1g 88s 50c	10	0.720	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.pvp.alliance.eu/286989 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 286989?: On PvP Alliance EU, Item 286989 is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 316% 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.