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 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 PvP Alliance US, Bogling Root is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 413% after the 5 percent cut.

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

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 Pacific · index 0.621 · typical 4s 15c

Best hours to sell

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 Pacific · index 1.840 · typical 15s 45c

Spread after the 5% cut

+413%

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 2 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Bogling Rootby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	4s 97c	3s 75c	89	0.732	3
01:00	17:00	5s 39c	3s 93c	73	0.947	2
02:00	18:00	3s 94c	3s 30c	58	0.664	3
03:00	19:00	3s 52c	2s 54c	67	0.581	3
04:00	20:00	4s 67c	3s 3c	65	0.654	4
05:00	21:00	8s 28c	4s 26c	59	1.161	5
06:00	22:00	5s 72c	3s 67c	57	0.913	4
07:00	23:00	4s 53c	2s 79c	76	0.739	5
08:00	00:00	5s 62c	2s 44c	74	0.928	4
09:00	01:00	6s 14c	5s	65	1.080	4
10:00	02:00	8s 8c	7s 21c	60	1.235	4
11:00	03:00	5s 85c	4s 90c	54	1.201	3
12:00	04:00	3s 38c	2s 85c	58	0.689	2
13:00	05:00	4s 47c	3s 16c	56	0.933	3
14:00	06:00	15s 76c	11s 82c	45	1.940	4
15:00	07:00	17s 30c	13s 36c	42	1.940	3
16:00	08:00	13s 30c	10s 33c	52	1.639	4
17:00	09:00	11s 45c	3s 82c	66	1.348	4
18:00	10:00	12s 75c	3s 3c	76	1.375	3
19:00	11:00	4s 75c	2s 36c	94	0.688	3
20:00	12:00	4s 67c	3s 6c	87	0.690	3
21:00	13:00	6s 11c	2s 73c	105	0.791	2
22:00	14:00	3s 79c	2s 42c	104	0.580	3
23:00	15:00	3s 69c	2s 42c	93	0.551	4

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.us/5206 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.025	0.959	4
01:00	17:00	1.082	0.840	3
02:00	18:00	0.993	1.061	3
03:00	19:00	1.011	1.016	3
04:00	20:00	0.995	1.074	4
05:00	21:00	1.000	1.092	5
06:00	22:00	1.020	1.143	4
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.194	5
08:00	00:00	1.011	1.116	4
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.133	4
10:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	5
11:00	03:00	0.999	1.090	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.987	2
13:00	05:00	0.990	0.984	3
14:00	06:00	0.995	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	0.973	0.963	3
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.938	4
17:00	09:00	0.974	0.888	4
18:00	10:00	0.977	0.935	3
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.902	3
20:00	12:00	0.984	0.913	3
21:00	13:00	0.992	0.839	2
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.927	3
23:00	15:00	1.003	0.962	4

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 Bogling Root?: On PvP Alliance US, Bogling Root is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 413% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.