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, Owl Bracers is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 40% 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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 CET · index 0.864 · typical 44s 83c

Best hours to sell

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 CET · index 1.074 · typical 59s 39c

Spread after the 5% cut

+40%

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.

Owl Bracersby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	1g	95s	3	1.173	1
01:00	02:00	63s 33c	56s 33c	9	0.973	3
02:00	03:00	45s	40s	9	0.872	2
03:00	04:00	45s	40s	10	0.873	2
04:00	05:00	44s 50c	41s	14	0.847	2
05:00	06:00	70s	62s	3	1.064	2
06:00	07:00	57s 50c	49s 25c	8	0.966	4
07:00	08:00	57s 50c	56s 25c	6	0.971	4
08:00	09:00	57s 50c	54s 25c	7	0.980	4
09:00	10:00	62s 38c	55s 50c	7	1.076	4
10:00	11:00	57s 75c	55s 50c	8	0.985	4
11:00	12:00	59s 33c	59s 33c	5	0.985	3
12:00	13:00	67s 67c	65s	5	1.232	1
13:00	14:00	58s	58s	6	0.982	3
14:00	15:00	52s 50c	52s 50c	9	1.009	2
15:00	16:00	52s 50c	51s	11	1.006	2
16:00	17:00	58s	55s 33c	10	1.000	3
17:00	18:00	52s 50c	51s	10	0.993	2
18:00	19:00	52s 17c	49s 50c	10	1.006	2
19:00	20:00	67s 20c	65s 67c	7	1.031	3
20:00	21:00	50s 15c	48s	15	0.994	2
21:00	22:00	38s 40c	35s	10	0.946	1
22:00	23:00	53s	45s	13	0.961	3
23:00	00:00	67s 33c	61s 33c	9	1.075	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/4796 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 Owl Bracers?: On PvP Alliance EU, Owl Bracers is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 40% 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.