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, Recipe: Longjaw Mud Snapper is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 CET) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 13% 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

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 CET · index 0.896 · typical 8s 8c

Best hours to sell

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 1.099 · typical 8s 24c

Spread after the 5% cut

+13%

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: Longjaw Mud Snapperby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	8s 50c	7s	39	0.838	1
01:00	02:00	7s 40c	7s	88	0.915	3
02:00	03:00	7s	7s	126	0.953	2
03:00	04:00	7s	7s	128	0.958	2
04:00	05:00	11s	11s	96	1.037	3
05:00	06:00	8s	7s	37	0.997	2
06:00	07:00	10s 20c	10s	62	1.082	5
07:00	08:00	9s 80c	9s 40c	49	1.043	5
08:00	09:00	9s 60c	8s 60c	49	1.022	5
09:00	10:00	9s 70c	9s 60c	32	1.034	5
10:00	11:00	9s 60c	8s 40c	53	1.020	5
11:00	12:00	10s 25c	8s 25c	54	1.038	4
12:00	13:00	12s 34c	12s	88	1.099	2
13:00	14:00	7s 33c	6s 67c	113	0.967	3
14:00	15:00	10s 33c	7s 33c	88	1.024	3
15:00	16:00	7s 67c	6s 33c	89	0.846	3
16:00	17:00	8s 25c	7s 50c	69	0.933	4
17:00	18:00	8s 33c	7s	91	0.908	3
18:00	19:00	7s 50c	7s 50c	125	1.071	2
19:00	20:00	7s 67c	7s	83	0.900	3
20:00	21:00	7s	6s 50c	124	1.017	2
21:00	22:00	8s	8s	14	1.065	1
22:00	23:00	8s 67c	6s 67c	90	1.209	3
23:00	00:00	8s 6c	7s	88	1.025	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/6328 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 Recipe: Longjaw Mud Snapper?: On PvP Alliance EU, Recipe: Longjaw Mud Snapper is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 CET) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 13% 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.