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 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 Normal Horde US, Antipodean Rod is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 478% after the 5 percent cut.

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

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 Pacific · index 0.566 · typical 37s 33c

Best hours to sell

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

10:00 to 13:00 Pacific · index 2.046 · typical 2g 6s 61c

Spread after the 5% cut

+478%

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

Antipodean Rodby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	61s 33c	48s 33c	31	0.898	3
01:00	17:00	67s	36s 50c	37	0.770	2
02:00	18:00	54s 50c	36s 50c	40	0.684	2
03:00	19:00	71s 67c	39s	71	0.476	1
04:00	20:00	59s 67c	47s	26	0.796	3
05:00	21:00	48s 67c	35s 33c	32	0.823	3
06:00	22:00	37s 50c	33s	18	0.761	2
07:00	23:00	37s	34s 50c	26	0.333	2
08:00	00:00	37s 50c	34s 33c	25	0.603	3
09:00	01:00	1g 6s	1g 3s	21	1.218	3
10:00	02:00	39s	34s	22	1.120	1
11:00	03:00	57s	52s	14	1.200	2
12:00	04:00	34s 50c	34s	10	0.648	2
13:00	05:00	34s 50c	33s	18	1.042	1
14:00	06:00	47s	44s 67c	7	0.850	3
15:00	07:00	33s	33s	5	0.241	1
16:00	08:00	34s	33s	10	1.034	1
17:00	09:00	34s	33s	6	1.036	1
18:00	10:00	3g 39s 50c	3g 16s 50c	9	2.828	2
19:00	11:00	2g 33s 33c	1g 31s 33c	11	2.192	3
20:00	12:00	47s	42s	11	1.117	2
21:00	13:00	1g 14s 67c	61s	19	1.275	3
22:00	14:00	1g 9s 67c	53s	24	1.223	3
23:00	15:00	73s	48s	33	0.833	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.normal.horde.us/2879 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.978	1.041	4
01:00	17:00	0.997	1.031	3
02:00	18:00	0.994	1.069	4
03:00	19:00	1.004	1.124	2
04:00	20:00	0.978	1.175	4
05:00	21:00	0.984	1.237	4
06:00	22:00	0.983	1.087	3
07:00	23:00	0.970	1.392	3
08:00	00:00	0.964	1.363	3
09:00	01:00	1.437	0.751	2
10:00	02:00	1.025	1.058	1
11:00	03:00	1.020	0.985	3
12:00	04:00	0.973	0.993	3
13:00	05:00	1.014	0.892	2
14:00	06:00	0.973	0.879	4
15:00	07:00	0.949	0.839	2
16:00	08:00	0.977	0.840	1
17:00	09:00	0.958	0.858	1
18:00	10:00	0.942	0.903	3
19:00	11:00	0.973	0.797	4
20:00	12:00	0.993	0.738	4
21:00	13:00	0.971	0.940	3
22:00	14:00	0.976	0.975	3
23:00	15:00	0.967	1.032	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 Antipodean Rod?: On Normal Horde US, Antipodean Rod is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 478% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.