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 Horde 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 Horde EU, Barbaric Battle Axe is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 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 93% after the 5 percent cut.

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

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 CET · index 0.885 · typical 23s 29c

Best hours to sell

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 1.095 · typical 28s 99c

Spread after the 5% cut

+93%

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

Barbaric Battle Axeby hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	27s 33c	13s 50c	224	1.020	4
01:00	02:00	27s 25c	13s 75c	242	1.026	4
02:00	03:00	22s	14s	272	0.989	3
03:00	04:00	22s	14s	228	1.006	3
04:00	05:00	23s 33c	14s	143	1.019	3
05:00	06:00	35s	14s	137	0.996	2
06:00	07:00	28s 60c	14s	141	0.998	3
07:00	08:00	25s 3c	13s 75c	126	1.007	4
08:00	09:00	27s 93c	17s	107	1.074	5
09:00	10:00	28s 28c	16s 20c	102	1.082	5
10:00	11:00	25s 40c	15s 40c	126	0.993	5
11:00	12:00	26s 5c	15s 40c	135	1.016	5
12:00	13:00	25s 55c	14s 60c	145	1.011	5
13:00	14:00	25s 9c	15s	163	1.003	5
14:00	15:00	24s 56c	14s 80c	178	0.991	5
15:00	16:00	19s 50c	14s 50c	135	0.789	4
16:00	17:00	25s 50c	14s 25c	168	0.948	4
17:00	18:00	24s 88c	14s	185	0.917	4
18:00	19:00	19s 92c	14s 67c	209	0.874	3
19:00	20:00	21s 73c	14s 67c	204	0.927	3
20:00	21:00	27s 47c	13s 75c	169	1.027	4
21:00	22:00	33s 67c	14s 33c	151	1.151	3
22:00	23:00	25s 11c	14s 33c	213	1.074	3
23:00	00:00	28s 19c	14s	219	1.059	4

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.horde.eu/3195 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.997	1.111	4
01:00	02:00	0.962	1.101	4
02:00	03:00	0.959	1.113	3
03:00	04:00	1.030	0.831	3
04:00	05:00	1.115	0.847	4
05:00	06:00	1.027	0.824	2
06:00	07:00	1.038	0.838	3
07:00	08:00	1.024	0.756	4
08:00	09:00	1.005	0.842	5
09:00	10:00	1.042	0.826	5
10:00	11:00	1.014	0.920	5
11:00	12:00	1.011	0.979	5
12:00	13:00	1.002	1.053	5
13:00	14:00	0.996	1.155	5
14:00	15:00	0.966	1.242	5
15:00	16:00	0.950	0.973	4
16:00	17:00	1.011	1.054	4
17:00	18:00	0.952	1.085	4
18:00	19:00	0.939	1.116	3
19:00	20:00	0.925	1.143	3
20:00	21:00	1.008	1.051	4
21:00	22:00	0.996	0.945	3
22:00	23:00	1.029	1.118	3
23:00	00:00	1.006	1.076	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 Barbaric Battle Axe?: On PvP Horde EU, Barbaric Battle Axe is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 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 93% 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 Horde EU through the night fills the gaps.