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, Pattern: Greater Adept's Robe is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific) and dearest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 70% 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

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 Pacific · index 0.801 · typical 30s 55c

Best hours to sell

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 Pacific · index 1.278 · typical 50s 53c

Spread after the 5% cut

+70%

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.

Pattern: Greater Adept's Robeby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	14s 17c	13s	14	0.983	2
01:00	17:00	20s 33c	18s 67c	9	0.996	3
02:00	18:00	13s	13s	14	0.926	2
03:00	19:00	13s	13s	11	0.942	2
04:00	20:00	37s	25s	12	0.990	3
05:00	21:00	43s 63c	23s 75c	15	1.107	4
06:00	22:00	54s 25c	23s 50c	13	1.498	4
07:00	23:00	43s 50c	24s 50c	14	1.144	4
08:00	00:00	53s 83c	29s 33c	14	1.192	3
09:00	01:00	52s 67c	27s 33c	14	1.159	3
10:00	02:00	38s	22s 50c	9	1.116	4
11:00	03:00	27s 33c	26s	12	0.849	3
12:00	04:00	44s	40s	9	0.654	1
13:00	05:00	20s 33c	18s 67c	11	0.900	3
14:00	06:00	27s 33c	25s 67c	13	0.906	3
15:00	07:00	18s 50c	16s	20	1.019	2
16:00	08:00	27s	24s	17	0.916	3
17:00	09:00	26s 11c	24s	16	0.924	3
18:00	10:00	31s	25s	10	0.823	2
19:00	11:00	31s 50c	25s	10	0.937	2
20:00	12:00	16s	15s	24	1.026	2
21:00	13:00	20s	20s	17	1.065	1
22:00	14:00	25s	22s 50c	13	0.923	2
23:00	15:00	20s 67c	18s 67c	14	1.005	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.us/6275 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 Pattern: Greater Adept's Robe?: On PvP Alliance US, Pattern: Greater Adept's Robe is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific) and dearest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 70% 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.