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, Woolen Bag is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 Pacific). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.

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

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 Pacific · index 0.906 · typical 14s 16c

Best hours to sell

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 Pacific · index 1.176 · typical 11s 57c

Spread after the 5% cut

-7%

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

Woolen Bagby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	10s 13c	8s 67c	210	0.941	3
01:00	17:00	11s 33c	8s	142	1.338	3
02:00	18:00	8s 25c	7s 50c	185	1.031	2
03:00	19:00	8s 13c	6s 50c	184	1.028	2
04:00	20:00	9s 33c	8s	182	0.932	3
05:00	21:00	16s 60c	12s 60c	180	1.023	5
06:00	22:00	10s	7s 75c	259	1.024	4
07:00	23:00	16s 70c	15s 40c	238	1.033	5
08:00	00:00	18s 50c	17s	215	1.065	4
09:00	01:00	17s 75c	13s	246	1.035	4
10:00	02:00	15s 40c	12s	275	1.043	5
11:00	03:00	8s 47c	7s 33c	360	0.876	3
12:00	04:00	19s	16s	185	0.923	2
13:00	05:00	15s	12s	216	0.921	3
14:00	06:00	13s 75c	11s 50c	190	0.952	4
15:00	07:00	14s 67c	13s	131	0.926	3
16:00	08:00	12s 75c	12s	141	0.898	4
17:00	09:00	12s 54c	10s 25c	121	0.929	4
18:00	10:00	13s 67c	11s 33c	103	0.930	3
19:00	11:00	13s 83c	10s	91	0.969	3
20:00	12:00	12s 17c	10s 33c	136	0.971	3
21:00	13:00	14s 75c	10s 50c	83	1.022	2
22:00	14:00	11s 67c	11s	116	0.944	3
23:00	15:00	13s 25c	9s	142	1.250	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/4240 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 Woolen Bag?: On PvP Alliance US, Woolen Bag is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 Pacific). 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 US through the night fills the gaps.