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, Medicine Staff is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET) and dearest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 186% 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

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 CET · index 0.920 · typical 50s 13c

Best hours to sell

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 CET · index 1.077 · typical 56s 67c

Spread after the 5% cut

+186%

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.

Medicine Staffby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	64s 50c	20s	47	0.882	1
01:00	02:00	60s 93c	17s 33c	100	1.012	3
02:00	03:00	55s	17s 50c	132	0.992	2
03:00	04:00	55s	17s 50c	130	0.994	2
04:00	05:00	45s	15s	127	0.918	2
05:00	06:00	65s 50c	21s	61	1.062	2
06:00	07:00	55s	16s 75c	70	0.992	4
07:00	08:00	55s 31c	18s 25c	58	1.007	4
08:00	09:00	53s 13c	19s 75c	61	0.973	4
09:00	10:00	52s 25c	18s 75c	64	0.961	4
10:00	11:00	45s	18s	45	0.825	5
11:00	12:00	63s 25c	36s 75c	62	1.001	4
12:00	13:00	71s 17c	26s	58	1.103	2
13:00	14:00	51s 80c	16s	87	0.934	3
14:00	15:00	64s	19s 33c	79	1.041	3
15:00	16:00	65s	27s	74	1.062	3
16:00	17:00	57s 50c	21s 50c	77	0.939	4
17:00	18:00	59s 60c	20s	81	0.983	3
18:00	19:00	54s 50c	15s 50c	97	1.060	2
19:00	20:00	62s 51c	22s 33c	70	1.056	3
20:00	21:00	53s 93c	15s 50c	115	1.065	2
21:00	22:00	60s 40c	17s	95	1.104	1
22:00	23:00	55s 67c	15s 33c	126	1.061	3
23:00	00:00	56s 33c	17s	96	0.975	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/4575 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 Medicine Staff?: On PvP Alliance EU, Medicine Staff is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET) and dearest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 186% 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.