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, Manual: Strong Anti-Venom is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 460% 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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 Pacific · index 0.465 · typical 16s 22c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 Pacific · index 1.651 · typical 64s 22c

Spread after the 5% cut

+460%

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

Manual: Strong Anti-Venomby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	23s 22c	16s 67c	43	0.837	3
01:00	17:00	47s	14s	33	1.011	2
02:00	18:00	14s 50c	10s 50c	46	0.389	2
03:00	19:00	17s 25c	10s 50c	42	0.440	2
04:00	20:00	16s 92c	11s 67c	40	0.565	3
05:00	21:00	14s	9s 75c	43	0.620	4
06:00	22:00	25s 38c	9s	37	2.019	4
07:00	23:00	13s 25c	9s 25c	36	0.675	4
08:00	00:00	23s	21s 75c	19	0.819	4
09:00	01:00	21s 88c	21s 25c	19	0.773	4
10:00	02:00	23s 25c	21s 50c	30	0.854	4
11:00	03:00	10s 50c	8s	31	0.904	2
12:00	04:00	37s	34s 50c	24	1.229	2
13:00	05:00	74s	63s	18	1.852	3
14:00	06:00	57s	48s 75c	15	1.567	4
15:00	07:00	61s 67c	54s 67c	11	1.534	3
16:00	08:00	46s 25c	40s 75c	20	1.293	4
17:00	09:00	43s 33c	23s	21	1.252	4
18:00	10:00	25s	14s	13	0.998	3
19:00	11:00	15s 33c	13s 33c	16	0.870	3
20:00	12:00	28s 33c	19s 33c	30	0.922	3
21:00	13:00	17s	14s	11	0.932	2
22:00	14:00	13s 33c	11s 33c	20	0.814	3
23:00	15:00	21s 75c	14s 25c	38	0.829	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.us/6454 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 Manual: Strong Anti-Venom?: On PvP Alliance US, Manual: Strong Anti-Venom is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 460% 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.