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 Gloves is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 183% 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

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 CET · index 0.835 · typical 18s 2c

Best hours to sell

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 CET · index 1.120 · typical 23s 27c

Spread after the 5% cut

+183%

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 Glovesby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	20s	20s	10	1.026	1
01:00	02:00	19s	9s 67c	31	0.924	3
02:00	03:00	25s 50c	5s 50c	41	1.185	2
03:00	04:00	23s 50c	5s 50c	41	1.089	2
04:00	05:00	24s	5s 50c	39	1.070	2
05:00	06:00	23s	5s 50c	20	1.189	2
06:00	07:00	22s 81c	5s 50c	24	1.100	4
07:00	08:00	21s 94c	9s	20	1.069	4
08:00	09:00	21s 25c	6s 50c	22	1.035	4
09:00	10:00	21s 25c	6s 50c	25	1.030	4
10:00	11:00	19s 33c	7s	18	0.982	3
11:00	12:00	20s 28c	6s 33c	20	0.942	3
12:00	13:00	22s 67c	5s	20	0.985	1
13:00	14:00	15s 20c	6s 33c	30	0.733	3
14:00	15:00	21s 33c	10s 33c	21	0.964	3
15:00	16:00	22s 75c	10s 33c	24	1.030	3
16:00	17:00	16s 56c	9s 25c	26	0.801	4
17:00	18:00	19s	9s 67c	29	0.879	3
18:00	19:00	18s 50c	4s 50c	37	0.823	2
19:00	20:00	18s 67c	8s 67c	28	0.868	3
20:00	21:00	24s	5s	41	1.061	2
21:00	22:00	26s 60c	5s	31	1.149	1
22:00	23:00	19s 17c	5s 33c	45	0.881	3
23:00	00:00	25s 67c	10s	31	1.185	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/6565 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.985	1.123	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.052	4
02:00	03:00	1.049	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.039	1.030	3
05:00	06:00	1.060	0.801	2
06:00	07:00	1.024	0.876	5
07:00	08:00	1.037	0.820	5
08:00	09:00	1.021	0.886	5
09:00	10:00	1.003	0.942	5
10:00	11:00	1.069	0.754	5
11:00	12:00	0.989	0.900	4
12:00	13:00	0.983	0.872	2
13:00	14:00	0.988	0.988	3
14:00	15:00	0.986	1.010	3
15:00	16:00	0.978	1.064	3
16:00	17:00	0.969	1.090	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.115	3
18:00	19:00	0.960	1.155	2
19:00	20:00	0.990	1.040	3
20:00	21:00	0.954	1.160	2
21:00	22:00	0.964	1.073	1
22:00	23:00	0.953	1.150	3
23:00	00:00	0.999	1.092	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 Gloves?: On PvP Alliance EU, Shimmering Gloves is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 183% 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.