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 287014 is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 160% 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

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 0.799 · typical 9g 15s 83c

Best hours to sell

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

08:00 to 11:00 CET · index 1.175 · typical 19g 68s

Spread after the 5% cut

+160%

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 287014by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	7g 99s	5g 55s	5	0.816	1
01:00	02:00	7g 99s	4g 55s	6	0.816	1
02:00	03:00	10g 88s	9g 90s	5	0.765	2
04:00	05:00	11g 49s	11g 44s	4	0.890	2
05:00	06:00	20g 49s	20g 49s	2	0.932	2
06:00	07:00	24g	24g	2	1.075	2
07:00	08:00	20g 50s	20g	2	1.228	3
08:00	09:00	20g	19g 33s	3	1.214	3
09:00	10:00	18g 55s	17g 93s	4	1.083	3
10:00	11:00	18g	17g 56s	5	1.035	3
11:00	12:00	18g	16g 60s	5	1.060	3
12:00	13:00	18g 26s	16g 60s	5	1.089	3
13:00	14:00	18g 59s	17g 59s	6	1.118	3
14:00	15:00	22g 16s	20g 99s	4	1.144	2
15:00	16:00	21g 66s	20g 99s	5	1.106	2
16:00	17:00	21g 19s	20g 99s	4	1.079	2
17:00	18:00	20g 99s	20g 99s	5	1.074	2
18:00	19:00	20g 99s	19g 75s	6	1.094	2
19:00	20:00	16g 59s	8g 49s 50c	7	0.944	2
20:00	21:00	13g 6s	8g 99s 50c	6	0.848	2
22:00	23:00	18g 33s	9g	3	0.824	1
23:00	00:00	11g 49s	11g 49s	3	0.764	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/287014 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.938	1.084	2
01:00	02:00	0.977	1.027	5
02:00	03:00	1.001	1.043	5
03:00	04:00	1.016	1.014	2
04:00	05:00	1.015	0.925	4
05:00	06:00	1.026	0.828	4
06:00	07:00	1.020	0.808	5
07:00	08:00	1.035	0.811	6
08:00	09:00	1.039	0.804	6
09:00	10:00	1.022	0.870	6
10:00	11:00	1.035	0.924	6
11:00	12:00	1.030	0.940	6
12:00	13:00	0.998	1.074	4
13:00	14:00	0.997	1.101	5
14:00	15:00	0.994	0.993	4
15:00	16:00	0.986	1.033	4
16:00	17:00	0.979	1.063	5
17:00	18:00	0.977	1.110	4
18:00	19:00	0.966	1.148	3
19:00	20:00	0.999	1.080	4
20:00	21:00	0.960	1.183	3
21:00	22:00	0.970	1.033	1
22:00	23:00	0.980	1.110	3
23:00	00:00	1.040	0.993	4

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 287014?: On PvP Alliance EU, Item 287014 is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 160% 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.