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 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 Normal Horde EU, Heavy Silk Bandage is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 76% after the 5 percent cut.

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

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 CET · index 0.821 · typical 5s 73c

Best hours to sell

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 CET · index 1.224 · typical 10s 59c

Spread after the 5% cut

+76%

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

Heavy Silk Bandageby hour · Normal Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	6s 48c	5s	30	1.057	1
02:00	03:00	5s 48c	5s	25	0.978	1
03:00	04:00	15s 12c	15s	14	1.251	2
04:00	05:00	5s	5s	20	0.913	1
05:00	06:00	5s	5s	16	0.923	1
06:00	07:00	11s 62c	11s 33c	16	1.263	3
07:00	08:00	5s	4s 99c	13	0.945	1
08:00	09:00	11s 62c	11s 33c	16	1.323	3
09:00	10:00	11s 64c	6s 99c	14	1.352	3
10:00	11:00	8s 50c	8s 25c	11	0.998	2
11:00	12:00	4s 99c	4s 99c	15	0.990	1
12:00	13:00	8s 24c	7s 24c	12	1.013	2
13:00	14:00	8s 24c	5s 73c	10	1.020	2
14:00	15:00	5s 74c	5s 73c	16	0.805	2
15:00	16:00	5s 73c	5s 73c	20	0.812	2
16:00	17:00	5s 73c	5s 73c	19	0.846	2
17:00	18:00	5s 73c	5s 73c	21	0.853	2
18:00	19:00	5s 73c	5s 72c	26	0.861	2
19:00	20:00	5s 73c	5s 72c	26	0.899	2
20:00	21:00	5s 72c	5s 69c	32	0.906	2
21:00	22:00	5s 72c	5s 69c	38	0.953	2
22:00	23:00	5s 69c	5s 19c	40	1.009	2
23:00	00:00	5s 69c	5s 19c	39	1.033	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.eu/6451 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.985	1.242	1
01:00	02:00	1.012	1.018	2
02:00	03:00	1.027	1.104	2
03:00	04:00	1.105	0.900	3
04:00	05:00	1.006	0.893	3
05:00	06:00	1.007	0.863	2
06:00	07:00	1.045	0.861	5
07:00	08:00	0.993	0.793	2
08:00	09:00	1.016	0.820	5
09:00	10:00	1.030	0.842	5
10:00	11:00	1.003	0.819	4
11:00	12:00	0.994	0.876	1
12:00	13:00	0.979	0.947	4
13:00	14:00	1.061	0.956	4
14:00	15:00	0.968	1.026	3
15:00	16:00	0.958	1.107	4
16:00	17:00	1.053	0.951	3
17:00	18:00	0.980	0.935	3
18:00	19:00	0.946	1.149	2
19:00	20:00	0.986	1.072	3
20:00	21:00	0.958	1.170	3
21:00	22:00	0.968	1.187	3
22:00	23:00	0.953	1.225	3
23:00	00:00	0.967	1.242	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 Heavy Silk Bandage?: On Normal Horde EU, Heavy Silk Bandage is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 76% 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 Horde EU through the night fills the gaps.