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, Neophyte's Shirt is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 49% 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

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 0.796 · typical 35s 91c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 CET · index 1.212 · typical 45s 72c

Spread after the 5% cut

+49%

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.

Neophyte's Shirtby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	8s	7s	9	0.989	1
01:00	02:00	20s 73c	14s 33c	9	0.727	3
02:00	03:00	47s	39s	13	0.871	1
03:00	04:00	40s	34s	16	0.788	1
04:00	05:00	27s 50c	24s 50c	12	0.878	2
05:00	06:00	8s	7s	7	1.094	1
06:00	07:00	20s 67c	18s 67c	9	1.008	3
07:00	08:00	16s 50c	16s 50c	7	0.966	4
08:00	09:00	14s 20c	14s	6	0.806	5
09:00	10:00	14s 20c	13s 20c	6	0.817	5
10:00	11:00	17s	12s	10	1.038	3
11:00	12:00	15s 67c	12s	10	1.026	3
12:00	13:00	19s 67c	13s	13	1.052	2
13:00	14:00	45s 67c	40s 33c	13	1.224	3
14:00	15:00	46s 67c	42s 33c	9	1.223	3
15:00	16:00	44s 83c	41s 67c	12	1.188	3
16:00	17:00	33s 50c	25s 25c	14	1.056	4
17:00	18:00	42s 78c	32s	15	1.154	3
18:00	19:00	44s	43s 50c	21	0.943	2
19:00	20:00	32s 33c	30s 67c	17	0.990	3
20:00	21:00	44s	30s	23	1.007	2
21:00	22:00	70s	50s	21	1.169	1
22:00	23:00	30s 89c	21s	21	0.967	3
23:00	00:00	31s 78c	20s	16	1.018	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/53 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.985	1.123	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.052	4
02:00	03:00	1.049	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.039	1.030	3
05:00	06:00	1.060	0.801	2
06:00	07:00	1.024	0.876	5
07:00	08:00	1.037	0.820	5
08:00	09:00	1.021	0.886	5
09:00	10:00	1.003	0.942	5
10:00	11:00	1.069	0.754	5
11:00	12:00	0.989	0.900	4
12:00	13:00	0.983	0.872	2
13:00	14:00	0.988	0.988	3
14:00	15:00	0.986	1.010	3
15:00	16:00	0.978	1.064	3
16:00	17:00	0.969	1.090	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.115	3
18:00	19:00	0.960	1.155	2
19:00	20:00	0.990	1.040	3
20:00	21:00	0.954	1.160	2
21:00	22:00	0.964	1.073	1
22:00	23:00	0.953	1.150	3
23:00	00:00	0.999	1.092	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 Neophyte's Shirt?: On PvP Alliance EU, Neophyte's Shirt is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 49% 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.