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, Formula: Enchant Boots - Minor Agility is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 219% 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

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 CET · index 0.542 · typical 17s 55c

Best hours to sell

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 CET · index 1.297 · typical 48s 78c

Spread after the 5% cut

+219%

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.

Formula: Enchant Boots - Minor Agilityby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	18s 75c	11s 50c	31	0.720	2
01:00	02:00	38s 75c	14s 25c	28	1.162	4
02:00	03:00	35s 25c	23s 75c	41	1.072	4
03:00	04:00	57s	34s	24	1.402	2
04:00	05:00	42s 33c	26s 33c	41	1.094	3
05:00	06:00	35s	21s 50c	20	1.043	4
06:00	07:00	36s 25c	25s	21	1.173	4
07:00	08:00	28s 20c	26s	16	1.155	5
08:00	09:00	27s 40c	25s 80c	20	1.130	5
09:00	10:00	25s 60c	25s	27	1.056	5
10:00	11:00	26s 80c	17s 60c	27	1.090	5
11:00	12:00	36s 92c	34s	30	1.052	6
12:00	13:00	52s 44c	50s 33c	38	1.221	3
13:00	14:00	21s 75c	21s 25c	40	0.795	4
14:00	15:00	40s 75c	39s 75c	30	1.021	4
15:00	16:00	28s 25c	25s 50c	32	0.779	4
16:00	17:00	25s 80c	21s 60c	34	0.835	5
17:00	18:00	23s 58c	19s 75c	34	0.723	4
18:00	19:00	18s 22c	15s	42	0.681	3
19:00	20:00	21s 50c	17s 25c	38	0.693	4
20:00	21:00	17s 14c	12s 33c	43	0.656	3
21:00	22:00	14s	14s	2	0.275	1
22:00	23:00	69s 56c	66s	38	1.729	3
23:00	00:00	58s 4c	35s	36	1.441	4

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/6377 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.939	1.077	2
01:00	02:00	0.979	1.025	5
02:00	03:00	1.015	1.046	5
03:00	04:00	1.031	1.017	2
04:00	05:00	1.010	0.936	4
05:00	06:00	1.038	0.846	4
06:00	07:00	1.020	0.817	5
07:00	08:00	1.039	0.851	6
08:00	09:00	1.038	0.843	6
09:00	10:00	1.024	0.915	6
10:00	11:00	1.021	0.992	6
11:00	12:00	0.984	1.060	6
12:00	13:00	1.004	0.898	3
13:00	14:00	0.995	0.960	4
14:00	15:00	0.993	0.991	4
15:00	16:00	0.985	1.030	4
16:00	17:00	0.978	1.068	5
17:00	18:00	0.980	1.104	4
18:00	19:00	0.970	1.150	3
19:00	20:00	0.996	1.079	4
20:00	21:00	0.959	1.186	3
21:00	22:00	0.967	1.035	1
22:00	23:00	0.983	1.098	3
23:00	00:00	1.049	0.976	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 Formula: Enchant Boots - Minor Agility?: On PvP Alliance EU, Formula: Enchant Boots - Minor Agility is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 219% 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.