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 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 PvP Alliance US, Emblazoned Shoulders is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 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 199% after the 5 percent cut.

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

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 Pacific · index 0.888 · typical 29s 67c

Best hours to sell

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 Pacific · index 1.110 · typical 86s 72c

Spread after the 5% cut

+199%

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.

Emblazoned Shouldersby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	24s 70c	22s	16	1.001	2
01:00	17:00	39s 67c	39s	13	0.972	3
02:00	18:00	24s 50c	23s 50c	17	1.002	2
03:00	19:00	24s 50c	23s 50c	19	1.010	2
04:00	20:00	24s 50c	23s	19	1.016	2
05:00	21:00	33s	27s 33c	17	0.975	3
06:00	22:00	30s 44c	25s 67c	21	0.947	3
07:00	23:00	30s 33c	26s	24	0.977	3
08:00	00:00	32s 25c	28s 50c	27	0.965	2
09:00	01:00	30s	28s 50c	22	0.922	2
10:00	02:00	26s 75c	25s 75c	15	0.776	4
11:00	03:00	61s 67c	59s 67c	14	1.048	3
12:00	04:00	1g 25s	1g 25s	2	1.205	1
13:00	05:00	73s 50c	73s 50c	7	1.076	2
14:00	06:00	59s 67c	59s	12	1.046	3
15:00	07:00	26s	25s 50c	16	0.928	2
16:00	08:00	59s	58s 33c	15	1.038	3
17:00	09:00	59s	49s 33c	14	1.060	3
18:00	10:00	71s 25c	49s	19	1.089	2
19:00	11:00	65s	49s	19	1.055	2
20:00	12:00	25s	23s 50c	21	0.966	2
21:00	13:00	28s	27s	31	0.979	1
22:00	14:00	53s 50c	48s 50c	25	0.973	2
23:00	15:00	42s 6c	39s 67c	20	0.975	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.us/6399 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.025	0.959	4
01:00	17:00	1.082	0.840	3
02:00	18:00	0.993	1.061	3
03:00	19:00	1.011	1.016	3
04:00	20:00	0.995	1.074	4
05:00	21:00	1.000	1.092	5
06:00	22:00	1.020	1.143	4
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.194	5
08:00	00:00	1.011	1.116	4
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.133	4
10:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	5
11:00	03:00	0.999	1.090	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.987	2
13:00	05:00	0.990	0.984	3
14:00	06:00	0.995	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	0.973	0.963	3
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.938	4
17:00	09:00	0.974	0.888	4
18:00	10:00	0.977	0.935	3
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.902	3
20:00	12:00	0.984	0.913	3
21:00	13:00	0.992	0.839	2
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.927	3
23:00	15:00	1.003	0.962	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 Emblazoned Shoulders?: On PvP Alliance US, Emblazoned Shoulders is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 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 199% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.