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, Kolkar Booty Key is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 16% 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

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 0.939 · typical 77s 8c

Best hours to sell

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 Pacific · index 1.101 · typical 90s 89c

Spread after the 5% cut

+16%

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.

Kolkar Booty Keyby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	76s 33c	76s	4	0.970	3
01:00	17:00	81s 50c	81s 50c	3	0.960	2
02:00	18:00	76s	72s	6	0.973	3
03:00	19:00	76s	69s 33c	5	0.985	3
04:00	20:00	76s	73s 33c	4	0.924	3
05:00	21:00	76s	73s 33c	4	0.930	3
06:00	22:00	79s 25c	77s 25c	5	0.963	4
07:00	23:00	87s 50c	87s 50c	2	0.990	2
08:00	00:00	90s	90s	1	1.183	1
09:00	01:00	92s 17c	90s 50c	5	1.068	2
10:00	02:00	90s 50c	90s 50c	5	1.053	2
11:00	03:00	90s 50c	90s 50c	5	1.054	2
13:00	05:00	80s	65s	5	1.074	1
14:00	06:00	87s 33c	82s 33c	3	1.045	3
15:00	07:00	80s 50c	73s	4	1.049	2
16:00	08:00	81s	81s	3	1.025	1
17:00	09:00	80s 83c	78s 33c	3	0.993	3
18:00	10:00	78s 33c	76s 33c	3	0.966	3
19:00	11:00	73s	70s	4	0.984	2
20:00	12:00	77s	77s	5	0.941	2
21:00	13:00	77s	74s 50c	6	0.949	2
22:00	14:00	77s 33c	74s 67c	4	0.969	3
23:00	15:00	75s	5s	4	0.952	1

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/5020 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 Kolkar Booty Key?: On Normal Alliance US, Kolkar Booty Key is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 16% 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.