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 Horde 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 Horde US, Recipe: Strider Stew is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 Pacific) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 138% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Horde US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/horde/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

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 Pacific · index 0.735 · typical 11s

Best hours to sell

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 Pacific · index 1.292 · typical 25s 28c

Spread after the 5% cut

+138%

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.

Recipe: Strider Stewby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	16s 83c	13s 25c	37	0.940	4
01:00	17:00	12s 50c	10s 50c	53	0.879	2
02:00	18:00	14s 67c	12s	45	0.886	3
03:00	19:00	10s	10s	17	1.016	1
04:00	20:00	13s 67c	11s 67c	49	0.857	3
05:00	21:00	11s	10s 33c	57	0.738	3
06:00	22:00	11s 50c	10s 50c	49	0.612	2
07:00	23:00	10s 50c	9s 50c	61	0.854	2
08:00	00:00	11s	10s 67c	39	0.762	3
09:00	01:00	23s 33c	18s 33c	15	1.477	3
10:00	02:00	30s	30s	11	1.297	1
11:00	03:00	22s 50c	22s	18	1.103	2
12:00	04:00	20s	18s 50c	28	1.044	2
13:00	05:00	26s 75c	25s	21	1.102	2
14:00	06:00	19s 75c	18s 50c	23	1.038	4
15:00	07:00	17s 50c	17s	20	0.961	2
16:00	08:00	30s	27s	31	1.324	1
17:00	09:00	27s	25s	45	1.220	1
18:00	10:00	20s	19s	30	1.012	3
19:00	11:00	17s 83c	17s 25c	25	0.995	4
20:00	12:00	17s 56c	15s 25c	32	0.991	4
21:00	13:00	15s 11c	12s 33c	42	0.935	3
22:00	14:00	15s	12s 33c	43	0.942	3
23:00	15:00	16s	12s 50c	46	1.016	2

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.horde.us/5486 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.978	1.041	4
01:00	17:00	0.997	1.031	3
02:00	18:00	0.994	1.069	4
03:00	19:00	1.004	1.124	2
04:00	20:00	0.978	1.175	4
05:00	21:00	0.984	1.237	4
06:00	22:00	0.983	1.087	3
07:00	23:00	0.970	1.392	3
08:00	00:00	0.964	1.363	3
09:00	01:00	1.437	0.751	2
10:00	02:00	1.025	1.058	1
11:00	03:00	1.020	0.985	3
12:00	04:00	0.973	0.993	3
13:00	05:00	1.014	0.892	2
14:00	06:00	0.973	0.879	4
15:00	07:00	0.949	0.839	2
16:00	08:00	0.977	0.840	1
17:00	09:00	0.958	0.858	1
18:00	10:00	0.942	0.903	3
19:00	11:00	0.973	0.797	4
20:00	12:00	0.993	0.738	4
21:00	13:00	0.971	0.940	3
22:00	14:00	0.976	0.975	3
23:00	15:00	0.967	1.032	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 Recipe: Strider Stew?: On Normal Horde US, Recipe: Strider Stew is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 Pacific) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 138% 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 Horde US through the night fills the gaps.