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, Shimmering Cloak is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 CET) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 127% 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

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

08:00 to 11:00 CET · index 0.747 · typical 12s 29c

Best hours to sell

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 CET · index 1.373 · typical 20s 40c

Spread after the 5% cut

+127%

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.

Shimmering Cloakby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	22s	19s	29	0.844	1
01:00	02:00	15s 87c	10s 33c	31	0.898	3
02:00	03:00	13s 50c	6s 50c	28	0.956	2
03:00	04:00	16s 25c	6s 50c	29	1.135	2
04:00	05:00	10s	6s	31	0.746	2
05:00	06:00	20s 50c	11s	25	1.155	2
06:00	07:00	14s 44c	9s	20	0.897	4
07:00	08:00	10s 88c	8s 75c	20	0.659	4
08:00	09:00	12s	8s 50c	19	0.761	4
09:00	10:00	14s	8s 40c	15	0.820	5
10:00	11:00	18s 50c	6s 75c	18	1.151	4
11:00	12:00	18s 13c	13s 50c	17	0.853	4
12:00	13:00	20s 34c	20s	9	0.803	2
13:00	14:00	13s 27c	7s	23	0.796	3
14:00	15:00	23s	21s	18	1.006	3
15:00	16:00	19s 17c	12s 67c	20	0.923	3
16:00	17:00	20s 50c	10s 50c	25	1.052	4
17:00	18:00	22s 13c	11s 33c	21	1.239	3
18:00	19:00	20s 50c	6s 50c	25	1.436	2
19:00	20:00	20s 49c	9s 33c	19	1.225	3
20:00	21:00	20s 22c	6s 50c	29	1.457	2
21:00	22:00	16s	7s	32	1.097	1
22:00	23:00	15s 28c	6s 67c	32	1.052	3
23:00	00:00	17s 56c	9s 33c	29	1.040	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.eu/6564 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.996	1.109	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.050	4
02:00	03:00	1.044	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.037	1.005	3
05:00	06:00	1.065	0.787	2
06:00	07:00	1.026	0.845	5
07:00	08:00	1.040	0.797	5
08:00	09:00	1.022	0.854	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.906	5
10:00	11:00	1.044	0.920	5
11:00	12:00	0.998	0.902	4
12:00	13:00	0.985	0.879	2
13:00	14:00	0.991	1.004	3
14:00	15:00	0.989	1.018	3
15:00	16:00	0.984	1.066	3
16:00	17:00	0.968	1.087	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.104	3
18:00	19:00	0.959	1.143	2
19:00	20:00	0.995	1.027	3
20:00	21:00	0.950	1.170	2
21:00	22:00	0.944	1.085	1
22:00	23:00	0.949	1.148	3
23:00	00:00	1.000	1.086	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 Shimmering Cloak?: On PvP Alliance EU, Shimmering Cloak is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 CET) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 127% 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.