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 Horde 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 Horde EU, Sturdy Quarterstaff 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). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 192% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Horde EU. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/horde/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 0.852 · typical 12s 25c

Best hours to sell

03:00 to 06:00 UTC

04:00 to 07:00 CET · index 1.213 · typical 17s 91c

Spread after the 5% cut

+192%

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.

Sturdy Quarterstaffby hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	11s 63c	5s 75c	199	0.807	4
01:00	02:00	12s 37c	5s 75c	191	0.858	4
02:00	03:00	16s 17c	6s 33c	155	1.052	3
03:00	04:00	18s 44c	7s	129	1.187	3
04:00	05:00	19s 13c	7s 75c	130	1.252	4
05:00	06:00	16s 17c	7s	127	1.199	2
06:00	07:00	14s 87c	7s	122	1.070	3
07:00	08:00	15s 83c	7s	97	1.079	4
08:00	09:00	15s 50c	7s 40c	108	1.044	5
09:00	10:00	15s 73c	7s 20c	105	1.051	5
10:00	11:00	16s 50c	7s 20c	120	1.086	5
11:00	12:00	16s 52c	6s 80c	132	1.068	5
12:00	13:00	16s 70c	7s	141	1.077	5
13:00	14:00	15s 89c	6s 80c	159	1.027	5
14:00	15:00	15s 40c	6s 40c	173	0.993	5
15:00	16:00	15s 33c	7s	143	0.966	5
16:00	17:00	14s 87c	6s 80c	180	0.937	5
17:00	18:00	12s 64c	6s 75c	213	0.887	4
18:00	19:00	14s 7c	7s	244	0.914	3
19:00	20:00	13s 93c	7s	240	0.915	3
20:00	21:00	12s 3c	6s	186	0.846	4
21:00	22:00	11s 63c	6s 67c	156	0.857	3
22:00	23:00	13s 83c	7s	222	0.937	3
23:00	00:00	12s 75c	6s	192	0.891	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.horde.eu/4566 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	1.006	1.113	4
01:00	02:00	0.966	1.116	4
02:00	03:00	0.957	1.123	3
03:00	04:00	1.021	0.832	3
04:00	05:00	1.111	0.841	4
05:00	06:00	1.019	0.827	2
06:00	07:00	1.028	0.850	3
07:00	08:00	1.019	0.744	4
08:00	09:00	1.005	0.827	5
09:00	10:00	1.042	0.813	5
10:00	11:00	1.013	0.892	5
11:00	12:00	1.011	0.941	5
12:00	13:00	1.007	0.999	5
13:00	14:00	1.004	1.079	5
14:00	15:00	0.979	1.164	5
15:00	16:00	0.960	1.163	5
16:00	17:00	1.002	1.227	5
17:00	18:00	0.947	1.065	4
18:00	19:00	0.933	1.108	3
19:00	20:00	0.930	1.125	3
20:00	21:00	1.017	1.033	4
21:00	22:00	0.992	0.942	3
22:00	23:00	1.028	1.111	3
23:00	00:00	1.002	1.066	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 Sturdy Quarterstaff?: On PvP Horde EU, Sturdy Quarterstaff 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). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 192% 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 Horde EU through the night fills the gaps.