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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 EU, Formula: Enchant Chest - Minor Intellect is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET) and dearest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 33% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Alliance EU. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/alliance/eu

Item

Best hours to buy

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 0.815 · typical 5s 93c

Best hours to sell

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 CET · index 1.151 · typical 7s 56c

Spread after the 5% cut

+33%

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 2 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Formula: Enchant Chest - Minor Intellectby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)TypicalLowestIndex
00:005s 75c5s 50c0.832
01:006s5s 67c0.839
02:005s 33c5s 33c0.839
03:007s6s 75c1.040
04:008s8s1.200
05:006s 50c6s0.998
06:007s 67c7s1.163
07:007s 50c7s 25c1.141
08:007s 50c7s 25c1.149
09:007s 44c6s 50c1.136
10:009s9s1.097
11:009s8s 50c1.115
12:008s 63c6s 75c1.097
13:008s 25c7s1.075
14:008s7s1.060
15:007s 50c6s 50c1.014
16:007s 50c6s 50c1.009
17:007s 22c5s 50c0.987
18:007s 25c5s 50c0.992
19:007s 52c5s0.939
20:005s 91c5s 25c0.834
21:005s 68c5s 25c0.800
22:006s 39c5s 67c0.849
23:005s 73c5s 33c0.796

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.eu/6342 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)Price indexListings indexDays
00:000.9821.1745
01:000.9981.1624
02:001.0641.0834
03:001.0221.0125
04:001.0041.0103
05:001.0420.7603
06:001.0290.9213
07:001.0160.8844
08:001.0110.8884
09:001.0150.9055
10:001.0210.8134
11:001.0160.8744
12:001.0100.9114
13:000.9950.9684
14:001.0051.0134
15:000.9821.0434
16:001.0001.0034
17:000.9631.0854
18:000.9521.1284
19:000.9791.0333
20:000.9571.1294
21:000.9631.1334
22:000.9871.0553
23:000.9861.0134

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

When is the WoW Forever auction house cheapest during the day?
Across Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET), 4.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 6.4% over. The pattern is read from the hourly price of the market's largest positions over the last few weeks, each hour against the day around it.
What is the best time of day to buy and sell Formula: Enchant Chest - Minor Intellect?
On Normal Alliance EU, Formula: Enchant Chest - Minor Intellect is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET) and dearest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 33% 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 EU through the night fills the gaps.