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, Dense Triangle Mace is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 Pacific) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 51% 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

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 Pacific · index 0.878 · typical 3g 37s 22c

Best hours to sell

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 Pacific · index 1.260 · typical 5g 16s 80c

Spread after the 5% cut

+51%

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.

Dense Triangle Maceby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	4g 62s 25c	4g 29s 25c	16	0.847	4
01:00	17:00	2g 77s 50c	1g 89s 50c	28	0.954	2
02:00	18:00	2g 77s 50c	2g 37s 50c	21	0.965	2
03:00	19:00	2g 66s 67c	2g 50s	16	0.964	1
04:00	20:00	2g 60s	2g 50s	18	0.908	2
05:00	21:00	3g 81s 67c	3g 16s 33c	11	0.977	3
06:00	22:00	4g 30s	3g 11s	14	0.965	2
07:00	23:00	2g 55s	2g 37s 50c	17	0.921	2
08:00	00:00	2g 96s 67c	2g 81s 67c	15	0.864	3
09:00	01:00	3g 20s	3g 4s	19	0.868	2
10:00	02:00	3g 95s	3g 88s	16	0.903	1
11:00	03:00	9g 47s 50c	9g 44s	9	1.205	2
12:00	04:00	3g 25s	3g 18s 50c	12	0.953	2
13:00	05:00	3g 95s	3g 88s	13	1.047	1
14:00	06:00	5g 46s 33c	5g 29s	6	0.967	3
15:00	07:00	2g 49s 33c	1g 99s	6	0.897	1
16:00	08:00	3g 89s	3g 80s	8	1.060	1
17:00	09:00	3g 88s	3g 78s	8	1.070	1
18:00	10:00	4g 38s 50c	3g 50s	8	1.444	2
19:00	11:00	7g 23s 89c	6g 96s 33c	9	1.266	3
20:00	12:00	3g 99s 50c	3g 99s	10	0.737	2
21:00	13:00	6g 33s 33c	5g 90s	12	1.187	3
22:00	14:00	5g 25s	3g 60s	18	1.059	3
23:00	15:00	2g 87s 50c	2g 40s	25	0.972	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/3203 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 Dense Triangle Mace?: On Normal Horde US, Dense Triangle Mace is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 Pacific) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 51% 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.