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, Large Green Sack is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 Pacific) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 19% 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

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

08:00 to 11:00 Pacific · index 0.954 · typical 86s 67c

Best hours to sell

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 Pacific · index 1.030 · typical 91s 72c

Spread after the 5% cut

+19%

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.

Large Green Sackby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	88s	84s 33c	18	0.983	3
01:00	17:00	97s	96s 50c	13	0.985	2
02:00	18:00	87s 67c	82s 33c	23	0.988	3
03:00	19:00	87s 67c	86s 67c	21	0.997	3
04:00	20:00	75s	69s	27	0.982	2
05:00	21:00	74s 50c	71s	27	0.978	2
06:00	22:00	86s 67c	82s 33c	30	1.005	3
07:00	23:00	97s	95s	14	1.017	2
08:00	00:00	79s	72s	29	1.013	1
09:00	01:00	97s	92s	16	1.024	2
10:00	02:00	95s	92s	17	0.999	2
11:00	03:00	95s	89s 50c	17	1.004	2
13:00	05:00	75s	72s	23	0.994	1
14:00	06:00	95s	81s 33c	14	1.004	3
15:00	07:00	85s	71s	20	1.010	2
16:00	08:00	80s	70s	22	0.884	1
17:00	09:00	90s	76s 67c	19	0.987	3
18:00	10:00	90s	73s	19	0.992	3
19:00	11:00	85s	74s 50c	18	1.057	2
20:00	12:00	93s	92s	15	1.005	2
21:00	13:00	93s	92s	17	1.008	2
22:00	14:00	93s 17c	88s	14	1.037	3
23:00	15:00	89s	80s	12	1.047	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/5575 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 Large Green Sack?: On Normal Alliance US, Large Green Sack is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 Pacific) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 19% 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.