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, Small Claw is cheapest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 Pacific) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 43% 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

00:00 to 03:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 Pacific · index 0.932 · typical 1s 23c

Best hours to sell

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 Pacific · index 1.041 · typical 1s 80c

Spread after the 5% cut

+43%

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.

Small Clawby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1s 28c	1s 20c	23	0.951	2
01:00	17:00	1s 20c	1s 20c	24	0.914	2
02:00	18:00	1s 20c	1s 20c	26	0.930	2
03:00	19:00	1s 20c	1s 15c	25	0.951	2
04:00	20:00	1s 47c	1s 43c	20	0.986	3
05:00	21:00	1s 60c	1s 57c	17	1.005	4
06:00	22:00	1s 60c	1s 55c	16	1.013	4
07:00	23:00	1s 57c	1s 50c	17	1.000	4
08:00	00:00	1s 83c	1s 73c	16	1.011	3
09:00	01:00	1s 83c	1s 73c	14	1.017	3
10:00	02:00	1s 57c	1s 57c	13	1.019	4
11:00	03:00	1s 83c	1s 72c	13	1.040	3
12:00	04:00	2s	2s	6	1.011	1
13:00	05:00	1s 60c	1s 50c	14	0.970	2
14:00	06:00	1s 73c	1s 60c	11	1.007	3
15:00	07:00	1s 58c	1s 40c	14	1.004	2
16:00	08:00	1s 72c	1s 60c	10	1.020	3
17:00	09:00	1s 70c	1s 60c	11	1.019	3
18:00	10:00	2s	2s	9	1.048	2
19:00	11:00	2s	2s	9	1.054	2
20:00	12:00	1s 40c	1s 28c	17	0.944	2
21:00	13:00	2s	1s 75c	13	1.124	1
22:00	14:00	1s 88c	1s 88c	10	1.003	2
23:00	15:00	1s 52c	1s 47c	16	0.958	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/3176 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 Small Claw?: On PvP Alliance US, Small Claw is cheapest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 Pacific) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 43% 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.