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, Solstice Robe is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CET) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 43% 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

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 CET · index 0.837 · typical 33s 72c

Best hours to sell

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 CET · index 1.286 · typical 49s 33c

Spread after the 5% cut

+43%

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.

Solstice Robeby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	47s 50c	35s	12	0.963	1
01:00	02:00	28s 33c	23s 33c	9	1.023	3
02:00	03:00	18s	17s 50c	8	0.922	2
03:00	04:00	18s	17s 50c	8	0.882	2
04:00	05:00	33s 50c	33s	6	0.861	2
05:00	06:00	26s 25c	25s	11	0.912	2
06:00	07:00	29s 75c	29s	7	0.883	4
07:00	08:00	37s 60c	37s 20c	6	0.899	5
08:00	09:00	37s 20c	37s 20c	6	0.895	5
09:00	10:00	37s	37s	6	0.888	5
10:00	11:00	37s	36s 80c	6	0.888	5
11:00	12:00	34s 50c	34s 25c	5	0.870	4
12:00	13:00	44s	44s	2	0.790	2
13:00	14:00	22s 67c	20s	6	0.852	3
14:00	15:00	52s 33c	42s	5	1.362	3
15:00	16:00	50s 67c	40s 33c	5	1.299	3
16:00	17:00	45s	39s 75c	8	1.196	4
17:00	18:00	48s 67c	45s	7	1.206	3
18:00	19:00	33s 50c	33s	8	1.122	2
19:00	20:00	45s 11c	37s	8	1.119	3
20:00	21:00	33s 50c	32s 50c	9	1.074	2
21:00	22:00	17s	17s	7	0.968	1
22:00	23:00	30s 11c	28s 33c	8	1.048	3
23:00	00:00	42s 11c	37s	7	1.081	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/4782 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 Solstice Robe?: On PvP Alliance EU, Solstice Robe is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CET) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 43% 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.