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, Burrowing Shovel is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 81% 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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 CET · index 0.855 · typical 22s 83c

Best hours to sell

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 1.248 · typical 36s 80c

Spread after the 5% cut

+81%

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.

Burrowing Shovelby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	44s 50c	29s	24	1.456	1
01:00	02:00	33s	23s	27	1.153	2
02:00	03:00	22s	18s	21	0.846	1
03:00	04:00	22s	18s	15	0.845	1
04:00	05:00	24s 50c	22s	14	0.876	2
05:00	06:00	30s 75c	25s 50c	15	1.075	2
06:00	07:00	26s 8c	22s 50c	11	0.921	4
07:00	08:00	25s 25c	22s 25c	9	0.890	4
08:00	09:00	26s 58c	23s 75c	7	0.936	4
09:00	10:00	28s 38c	26s 50c	8	0.993	4
10:00	11:00	29s 20c	27s 80c	8	1.040	5
11:00	12:00	27s 88c	26s 75c	10	0.985	4
12:00	13:00	29s 75c	28s 50c	8	1.019	2
13:00	14:00	27s 33c	25s	17	1.011	3
14:00	15:00	29s 33c	24s	13	1.032	3
15:00	16:00	29s 33c	25s 67c	15	1.031	3
16:00	17:00	27s 13c	23s	17	0.971	4
17:00	18:00	28s 67c	24s 33c	13	0.996	3
18:00	19:00	28s	27s	20	1.032	2
19:00	20:00	24s 67c	22s 67c	14	0.867	3
20:00	21:00	27s 50c	26s	17	0.995	2
21:00	22:00	24s 20c	23s	23	0.951	1
22:00	23:00	25s 33c	22s 33c	15	0.945	3
23:00	00:00	32s 89c	23s 33c	18	1.136	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/6205 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.996	1.109	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.050	4
02:00	03:00	1.044	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.037	1.005	3
05:00	06:00	1.065	0.787	2
06:00	07:00	1.026	0.845	5
07:00	08:00	1.040	0.797	5
08:00	09:00	1.022	0.854	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.906	5
10:00	11:00	1.044	0.920	5
11:00	12:00	0.998	0.902	4
12:00	13:00	0.985	0.879	2
13:00	14:00	0.991	1.004	3
14:00	15:00	0.989	1.018	3
15:00	16:00	0.984	1.066	3
16:00	17:00	0.968	1.087	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.104	3
18:00	19:00	0.959	1.143	2
19:00	20:00	0.995	1.027	3
20:00	21:00	0.950	1.170	2
21:00	22:00	0.944	1.085	1
22:00	23:00	0.949	1.148	3
23:00	00:00	1.000	1.086	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 Burrowing Shovel?: On PvP Alliance EU, Burrowing Shovel is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 81% 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.