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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 Normal Alliance US, Footpad's Shoes is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 Pacific) and dearest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 1040% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/alliance/us

Item

Best hours to buy

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 Pacific · index 0.715 · typical 1s

Best hours to sell

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 Pacific · index 1.283 · typical 12s

Spread after the 5% cut

+1040%

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.

Footpad's Shoesby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)TypicalLowestIndex
01:002s2s1.005
02:009s 50c9s 50c1.344
03:009s 50c9s 50c1.298
04:0017s17s1.206
05:0017s17s1.206
06:009s8s 50c1.174
07:001s1s1.005
09:001s1s1.005
10:001s1s1.005
11:001s1s1.005
12:001s1s1.005
13:001s1s1.005
14:001s1s0.707
15:001s1s0.683
16:001s1s0.942
17:001s1s0.519
18:001s1s0.879
19:001s1s1.005

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.normal.alliance.us/47 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)Price indexListings indexDays
00:000.9991.0314
01:000.9921.0554
02:000.9991.1195
03:000.9981.1584
04:000.9941.1824
05:001.0071.2114
06:001.0141.2555
07:000.9550.9983
08:000.9681.1331
09:000.9661.1402
10:000.9741.0773
11:000.9911.0403
12:001.1050.7951
13:000.9850.9431
14:001.0090.8964
15:001.0000.8483
16:001.0460.8092
17:000.9990.8334
18:000.9900.8474
19:001.0180.8693
20:000.9820.9363
21:000.9870.9473
22:001.0280.9084
23:000.9940.9702

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 Footpad's Shoes?
On Normal Alliance US, Footpad's Shoes is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 Pacific) and dearest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 1040% 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 Normal Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.