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 Horde 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 Horde US, Raw Rockscale Cod is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.

Current market: Normal Horde US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/horde/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

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 0.678 · typical 55c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 Pacific · index 1.393 · typical 42c

Spread after the 5% cut

-3%

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.

Raw Rockscale Codby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1s 52c	1s 27c	59	1.613	4
01:00	17:00	10c	7c	82	0.651	2
02:00	18:00	1s 71c	1s 37c	74	0.818	3
03:00	19:00	7c	6c	124	0.659	1
04:00	20:00	1s 39c	1s 4c	70	0.769	3
05:00	21:00	12c	9c	72	0.657	3
06:00	22:00	15c	10c	42	0.608	2
07:00	23:00	29c	27c	55	1.556	2
08:00	00:00	23c	19c	62	1.223	3
09:00	01:00	13c	9c	57	0.842	3
10:00	02:00	12c	11c	35	0.820	1
11:00	03:00	1s	1s	48	0.883	2
12:00	04:00	28c	20c	59	1.412	2
13:00	05:00	20c	12c	22	1.276	1
14:00	06:00	76c	39c	71	1.211	3
15:00	07:00	30c	20c	105	1.692	1
16:00	08:00	12c	10c	36	0.797	1
17:00	09:00	10c	10c	47	0.677	1
18:00	10:00	1s 77c	1s 73c	53	0.995	3
19:00	11:00	1s 69c	1s 42c	37	1.209	4
20:00	12:00	1s 47c	1s 37c	41	1.071	4
21:00	13:00	24c	15c	66	0.779	3
22:00	14:00	21c	16c	63	0.828	3
23:00	15:00	15c	11c	55	0.954	2

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.horde.us/6362 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.987	1.035	4
01:00	17:00	1.006	1.014	3
02:00	18:00	1.005	1.038	4
03:00	19:00	1.018	1.086	2
04:00	20:00	0.987	1.145	4
05:00	21:00	0.988	1.210	4
06:00	22:00	0.989	1.085	3
07:00	23:00	0.973	1.329	3
08:00	00:00	0.972	1.312	3
09:00	01:00	1.218	1.083	3
10:00	02:00	1.033	1.044	1
11:00	03:00	1.047	0.980	3
12:00	04:00	0.985	0.988	3
13:00	05:00	1.024	0.880	2
14:00	06:00	0.986	0.880	4
15:00	07:00	0.949	0.839	2
16:00	08:00	0.985	0.832	1
17:00	09:00	0.973	0.855	1
18:00	10:00	0.946	0.900	3
19:00	11:00	0.979	0.794	4
20:00	12:00	1.001	0.743	4
21:00	13:00	0.984	0.933	3
22:00	14:00	0.984	0.970	3
23:00	15:00	0.980	1.023	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 Raw Rockscale Cod?: On Normal Horde US, Raw Rockscale Cod is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.
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 Horde US through the night fills the gaps.