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, Hook Dagger is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 CET) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 223% 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

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 CET · index 0.817 · typical 39s 96c

Best hours to sell

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 1.262 · typical 62s 41c

Spread after the 5% cut

+223%

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.

Hook Daggerby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	67s 50c	34s	32	0.972	1
01:00	02:00	52s	21s	60	0.960	3
02:00	03:00	46s 50c	16s	71	1.005	2
03:00	04:00	46s 25c	16s	71	0.989	2
04:00	05:00	44s 50c	15s	60	0.982	2
05:00	06:00	46s	19s	49	0.902	2
06:00	07:00	40s 6c	18s 75c	45	0.825	4
07:00	08:00	37s 88c	18s 50c	42	0.774	4
08:00	09:00	41s 95c	17s 75c	39	0.852	4
09:00	10:00	59s 85c	37s 80c	29	0.971	5
10:00	11:00	52s 80c	36s 80c	25	0.840	5
11:00	12:00	65s 71c	26s 25c	27	1.031	4
12:00	13:00	74s 50c	58s 50c	26	0.998	2
13:00	14:00	42s 33c	18s	47	0.869	3
14:00	15:00	52s 67c	38s 33c	40	0.769	3
15:00	16:00	57s 83c	16s 33c	44	0.907	3
16:00	17:00	63s 94c	16s 75c	45	1.091	4
17:00	18:00	65s 66c	24s 67c	45	1.068	3
18:00	19:00	54s 67c	16s	57	1.146	2
19:00	20:00	65s 69c	19s	40	1.146	3
20:00	21:00	51s 50c	17s	54	1.117	2
21:00	22:00	63s	16s	63	1.245	1
22:00	23:00	56s	16s	56	1.227	3
23:00	00:00	68s 22c	21s 33c	41	1.314	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.eu/3184 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 Hook Dagger?: On PvP Alliance EU, Hook Dagger is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 CET) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 223% 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.