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, Decapitating Sword is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 89% 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

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 CET · index 0.892 · typical 33s 71c

Best hours to sell

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 CET · index 1.130 · typical 51s 79c

Spread after the 5% cut

+89%

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.

Decapitating Swordby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	73s	55s	3	1.147	1
01:00	02:00	51s 40c	41s	25	1.081	3
02:00	03:00	37s	25s	34	0.937	2
03:00	04:00	37s	25s	32	0.950	2
04:00	05:00	25s	25s	55	0.848	2
05:00	06:00	68s	42s 50c	12	1.323	2
06:00	07:00	44s 38c	32s 50c	27	1.051	4
07:00	08:00	43s	35s 50c	27	1.017	4
08:00	09:00	42s 50c	35s 25c	28	1.022	4
09:00	10:00	43s 75c	31s 25c	28	1.075	4
10:00	11:00	41s 25c	31s 25c	23	1.094	4
11:00	12:00	37s 33c	28s 33c	26	0.867	3
12:00	13:00	25s	25s	40	0.895	1
13:00	14:00	38s 80c	24s 67c	33	0.914	3
14:00	15:00	34s	25s	44	0.986	2
15:00	16:00	34s 50c	25s	45	1.024	2
16:00	17:00	36s 67c	27s 67c	39	0.933	3
17:00	18:00	35s 90c	25s	49	1.137	2
18:00	19:00	34s 17c	25s	58	1.062	2
19:00	20:00	32s 67c	28s 67c	34	0.846	3
20:00	21:00	31s 86c	25s	60	1.027	2
21:00	22:00	34s 40c	25s	49	1.043	1
22:00	23:00	29s 17c	25s 33c	51	0.834	3
23:00	00:00	37s 44c	35s	40	0.887	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/3740 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 Decapitating Sword?: On PvP Alliance EU, Decapitating Sword is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 89% 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.