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.

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, Silver-thread Sash is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 51% 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

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

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 Pacific · index 0.827 · typical 28s 67c

Best hours to sell

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 1.114 · typical 40s 45c

Spread after the 5% cut

+51%

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.

Silver-thread Sashby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	37s 75c	36s	34	1.024	4
01:00	17:00	47s	44s 67c	33	1.038	3
02:00	18:00	36s 50c	35s 50c	35	0.989	4
03:00	19:00	36s 50c	35s 50c	37	1.007	4
04:00	20:00	44s 33c	44s	33	1.128	3
05:00	21:00	42s 89c	39s 67c	34	1.126	3
06:00	22:00	34s 13c	33s 25c	22	1.088	4
07:00	23:00	54s 50c	25s 50c	27	1.094	2
08:00	00:00	11s	11s	48	1.010	1
09:00	01:00	35s	25s 50c	39	0.893	2
10:00	02:00	25s 50c	25s 50c	37	0.788	2
11:00	03:00	25s 50c	25s 50c	39	0.798	2
13:00	05:00	11s	11s	54	1.037	1
14:00	06:00	21s	19s 33c	19	0.931	3
15:00	07:00	11s 50c	10s 50c	20	1.037	2
16:00	08:00	12s	12s	21	1.026	1
17:00	09:00	19s 33c	17s 33c	19	0.978	3
18:00	10:00	16s 75c	15s 75c	19	0.763	4
19:00	11:00	37s 33c	37s 33c	20	0.985	3
20:00	12:00	43s 33c	38s 33c	20	0.996	3
21:00	13:00	50s 33c	45s 33c	23	1.081	3
22:00	14:00	38s 25c	36s 75c	26	1.012	4
23:00	15:00	61s 50c	61s	32	1.169	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.normal.alliance.us/4714 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.999	1.031	4
01:00	17:00	0.992	1.055	4
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.119	5
03:00	19:00	0.998	1.158	4
04:00	20:00	0.994	1.182	4
05:00	21:00	1.007	1.211	4
06:00	22:00	1.014	1.255	5
07:00	23:00	0.955	0.998	3
08:00	00:00	0.968	1.133	1
09:00	01:00	0.966	1.140	2
10:00	02:00	0.974	1.077	3
11:00	03:00	0.991	1.040	3
12:00	04:00	1.105	0.795	1
13:00	05:00	0.985	0.943	1
14:00	06:00	1.009	0.896	4
15:00	07:00	1.000	0.848	3
16:00	08:00	1.046	0.809	2
17:00	09:00	0.999	0.833	4
18:00	10:00	0.990	0.847	4
19:00	11:00	1.018	0.869	3
20:00	12:00	0.982	0.936	3
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.947	3
22:00	14:00	1.028	0.908	4
23:00	15:00	0.994	0.970	2

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 Silver-thread Sash?: On Normal Alliance US, Silver-thread Sash is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 51% 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.