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 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 Alliance US, Glimmering Mail Coif is cheapest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific) and dearest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 14% after the 5 percent cut.

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

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 Pacific · index 0.902 · typical 1g 70s 34c

Best hours to sell

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 Pacific · index 1.162 · typical 1g 82s 78c

Spread after the 5% cut

+14%

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.

Glimmering Mail Coifby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	2g 38s 94c	2g 13s 33c	11	0.997	3
01:00	17:00	2g 74s	2g 63s	11	1.126	3
02:00	18:00	2g 4s	2g 2s 67c	12	0.922	3
03:00	19:00	1g 89s 58c	1g 50s 75c	16	0.959	4
04:00	20:00	1g 64s 17c	1g 35s 67c	24	0.991	3
05:00	21:00	1g 58s 89c	1g 35s 67c	22	0.962	3
06:00	22:00	1g 81s 38c	1g 67s 25c	15	0.925	4
07:00	23:00	1g 69s	1g 47s 50c	23	0.960	2
08:00	00:00	1g 67s 50c	1g 47s 50c	25	0.955	2
09:00	01:00	2g 67c	1g 20s	25	1.003	1
10:00	02:00	1g 45s	1g 5s	17	0.856	2
11:00	03:00	2g	1g 80s	24	1.044	1
12:00	04:00	2g	2g	1	1.510	1
13:00	05:00	1g 48s 34c	1g 22s	13	0.932	2
14:00	06:00	2g 6s	1g 90s 75c	7	0.904	4
15:00	07:00	1g 56s 67c	1g 45s	11	0.872	3
16:00	08:00	2g 30s	2g	2	0.976	1
17:00	09:00	2g 46s 33c	2g 36s 33c	9	0.991	3
18:00	10:00	2g 23s 50c	2g 7s	9	1.054	4
19:00	11:00	1g 27s	1g 21s 50c	15	0.703	2
20:00	12:00	1g 40s 67c	1g 31s	24	0.988	2
21:00	13:00	2g 33s	2g 25s 33c	18	1.047	3
22:00	14:00	2g 82s 67c	2g 82s 33c	9	1.144	3
23:00	15:00	2g 25s	1g 64s	17	1.178	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.alliance.us/6389 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.001	1.007	4
01:00	17:00	1.008	1.024	5
02:00	18:00	0.977	1.045	5
03:00	19:00	0.987	1.087	5
04:00	20:00	0.984	1.111	5
05:00	21:00	0.991	1.166	5
06:00	22:00	0.990	1.207	6
07:00	23:00	0.980	1.174	4
08:00	00:00	1.004	1.270	2
09:00	01:00	0.994	1.146	2
10:00	02:00	0.993	1.104	4
11:00	03:00	0.988	1.055	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.951	2
13:00	05:00	0.987	0.956	2
14:00	06:00	1.011	0.918	5
15:00	07:00	0.997	0.894	4
16:00	08:00	1.056	0.791	2
17:00	09:00	1.009	0.854	4
18:00	10:00	0.987	0.873	5
19:00	11:00	1.056	0.728	4
20:00	12:00	0.969	0.908	4
21:00	13:00	0.989	0.934	4
22:00	14:00	1.020	0.893	4
23:00	15:00	1.010	0.903	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 Glimmering Mail Coif?: On Normal Alliance US, Glimmering Mail Coif is cheapest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific) and dearest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 14% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.