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 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 PvP Alliance US, Ring of the Underwood is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 27% after the 5 percent cut.

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

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 Pacific · index 0.882 · typical 5g 15s 72c

Best hours to sell

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 Pacific · index 1.146 · typical 6g 69s 81c

Spread after the 5% cut

+27%

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.

Ring of the Underwoodby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	4g 97s	3g 37s 50c	8	1.100	2
01:00	17:00	4g 97s	3g 40s 50c	7	1.110	2
02:00	18:00	4g 21s 50c	2g 94s	9	0.977	2
03:00	19:00	3g 46s 50c	3g 16s 50c	9	0.847	2
04:00	20:00	3g 46s 25c	3g 19s	9	0.858	2
05:00	21:00	4g 96s 83c	4g 79s 67c	8	0.945	3
06:00	22:00	4g 95s	4g 61s 33c	9	0.939	3
07:00	23:00	4g 86s 67c	4g 61s	9	0.932	3
08:00	00:00	5g 36s	5g 24s	6	0.864	2
09:00	01:00	5g 24s 50c	5g 24s	7	0.850	2
10:00	02:00	5g 79s 67c	4g 49s 33c	10	1.187	3
11:00	03:00	5g 47s 50c	5g 47s	5	0.940	2
13:00	05:00	4g 77s 50c	4g 77s 50c	4	0.940	2
14:00	06:00	5g 68s	5g 68s	4	0.995	3
15:00	07:00	5g 47s	5g 47s	5	1.035	2
16:00	08:00	5g 34s 67c	5g 34s 67c	4	0.967	3
17:00	09:00	5g 34s 67c	5g 10s	5	0.968	3
18:00	10:00	6g 79s 50c	6g 42s 50c	3	1.046	2
19:00	11:00	6g 55s	6g 30s	3	1.019	2
20:00	12:00	5g 3s 75c	4g 47s	6	1.045	2
21:00	13:00	6g 50s	3g 49s	10	1.124	1
22:00	14:00	7g 50s	5g 62s 50c	7	1.183	2
23:00	15:00	6g 9s 44c	4g 95s	6	1.129	3

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.us/2951 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.025	0.959	4
01:00	17:00	1.082	0.840	3
02:00	18:00	0.993	1.061	3
03:00	19:00	1.011	1.016	3
04:00	20:00	0.995	1.074	4
05:00	21:00	1.000	1.092	5
06:00	22:00	1.020	1.143	4
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.194	5
08:00	00:00	1.011	1.116	4
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.133	4
10:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	5
11:00	03:00	0.999	1.090	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.987	2
13:00	05:00	0.990	0.984	3
14:00	06:00	0.995	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	0.973	0.963	3
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.938	4
17:00	09:00	0.974	0.888	4
18:00	10:00	0.977	0.935	3
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.902	3
20:00	12:00	0.984	0.913	3
21:00	13:00	0.992	0.839	2
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.927	3
23:00	15:00	1.003	0.962	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 Ring of the Underwood?: On PvP Alliance US, Ring of the Underwood is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 27% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.