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, Nightsky Cowl is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 CET). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.

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

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 0.877 · typical 1g 48s 11c

Best hours to sell

03:00 to 06:00 UTC

04:00 to 07:00 CET · index 1.105 · typical 1g 31s 17c

Spread after the 5% cut

-11%

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.

Nightsky Cowlby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	2g	2g	1	0.674	1
01:00	02:00	1g 71s 33c	1g 50s	13	0.956	3
02:00	03:00	1g 60s 50c	1g 12s 50c	18	1.170	2
03:00	04:00	1g 36s 50c	90s 50c	19	1.051	2
04:00	05:00	68s	55s	21	1.012	2
05:00	06:00	1g 89s	1g 12s	14	1.252	1
06:00	07:00	99s 33c	74s	13	1.012	3
07:00	08:00	99s 33c	74s	12	1.033	3
08:00	09:00	80s 30c	72s	11	0.903	3
09:00	10:00	1g 62s 75c	1g 62s 50c	10	0.984	4
10:00	11:00	1g 62s 75c	1g 61s	10	1.004	4
11:00	12:00	1g 37s	1g 37s	7	0.863	3
12:00	13:00	65s	65s	12	0.962	1
13:00	14:00	1g 37s	1g 37s	7	0.868	3
14:00	15:00	88s 50c	83s	13	0.941	2
15:00	16:00	88s 50c	82s	15	0.975	2
16:00	17:00	2g 92c	1g 99s 33c	12	1.142	3
17:00	18:00	83s 70c	74s 50c	19	0.971	2
18:00	19:00	88s 50c	74s 50c	19	1.046	2
19:00	20:00	84s 84c	74s	18	1.044	2
20:00	21:00	82s	71s 50c	18	1.053	2
21:00	22:00	98s 40c	88s	20	1.058	1
22:00	23:00	1g 27s 61c	98s 67c	17	1.026	3
23:00	00:00	73s	68s	21	1.000	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.pvp.alliance.eu/4039 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 Nightsky Cowl?: On PvP Alliance EU, Nightsky Cowl is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 CET). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.
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.