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, Murloc Fin Soup is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 44% 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

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 Pacific · index 0.904 · typical 1s 96c

Best hours to sell

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 Pacific · index 1.125 · typical 2s 58c

Spread after the 5% cut

+44%

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.

Murloc Fin Soupby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	2s 53c	2s 18c	49	1.142	3
01:00	17:00	1s 48c	1s 40c	44	0.989	3
02:00	18:00	1s 27c	1s 27c	75	0.983	2
03:00	19:00	1s 27c	1s 25c	76	0.987	2
04:00	20:00	1s 85c	1s 83c	76	0.960	3
05:00	21:00	1s 80c	1s 78c	83	0.967	4
06:00	22:00	1s 82c	1s 66c	85	0.992	4
07:00	23:00	1s 79c	1s 63c	93	0.977	4
08:00	00:00	1s 98c	1s 75c	84	0.986	3
09:00	01:00	1s 95c	1s 75c	79	0.987	3
10:00	02:00	1s 67c	1s 62c	74	0.975	4
11:00	03:00	1s 75c	1s 58c	73	0.949	3
12:00	04:00	2s 49c	2s	52	0.943	1
13:00	05:00	1s 87c	1s 63c	52	0.998	2
14:00	06:00	1s 74c	1s 55c	67	1.003	3
15:00	07:00	1s 38c	1s 33c	74	1.006	2
16:00	08:00	1s 66c	1s 55c	64	0.976	3
17:00	09:00	1s 60c	1s 54c	56	0.966	3
18:00	10:00	1s 80c	1s 79c	42	0.778	3
19:00	11:00	2s 47c	1s 76c	42	0.967	3
20:00	12:00	2s 55c	2s 52c	48	1.102	3
21:00	13:00	3s 15c	3s 15c	50	1.135	2
22:00	14:00	2s 80c	2s 71c	48	1.122	3
23:00	15:00	2s 41c	2s 36c	41	1.110	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.alliance.us/3663 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 Murloc Fin Soup?: On PvP Alliance US, Murloc Fin Soup is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 44% 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.