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, Emblazoned Hat is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET) and dearest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 11% 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

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 CET · index 0.916 · typical 1g 80s 45c

Best hours to sell

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 CET · index 1.056 · typical 2g 6s 78c

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

Emblazoned Hatby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	2g 42s 50c	2g 20s	9	1.088	2
02:00	03:00	2g 12s 50c	1g 85s	10	0.979	2
03:00	04:00	2g 12s 50c	1g 62s 50c	10	0.991	2
04:00	05:00	1g 62s	1g 35s	10	1.012	2
05:00	06:00	2g	1g 99s	9	0.833	1
06:00	07:00	1g 70s 67c	1g 67s 33c	12	0.952	3
07:00	08:00	1g 70s 67c	1g 64s	11	0.962	3
08:00	09:00	1g 69s 47c	1g 43s	14	0.968	3
09:00	10:00	1g 67s 67c	1g 41s 67c	12	0.958	3
10:00	11:00	1g 94s 83c	1g 82s 33c	9	1.087	3
11:00	12:00	2g 40s 67c	2g 36s 33c	7	1.053	3
12:00	13:00	1g 55s	1g 44s	11	0.981	1
13:00	14:00	2g 8s 40c	1g 75s	14	1.077	2
14:00	15:00	1g 94s 50c	1g 72s	19	1.027	2
15:00	16:00	1g 94s	1g 65s	18	1.035	2
16:00	17:00	2g 29s 83c	1g 99s	11	1.061	3
17:00	18:00	1g 96s 50c	1g 77s	16	1.071	2
18:00	19:00	1g 77s 50c	1g 72s	15	0.987	2
19:00	20:00	1g 82s 4c	1g 44s	11	1.005	2
20:00	21:00	1g 60s 93c	1g 34s 50c	18	0.893	2
21:00	22:00	2g	1g 88s	19	0.962	1
22:00	23:00	2g 18s 22c	1g 55s	10	1.065	3
23:00	00:00	1g 64s 50c	1g 43s 50c	8	0.952	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/4048 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 Emblazoned Hat?: On PvP Alliance EU, Emblazoned Hat is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET) and dearest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 11% 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.