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, Defender Gauntlets is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 197% 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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 CET · index 0.719 · typical 14s 33c

Best hours to sell

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 CET · index 1.475 · typical 28s 17c

Spread after the 5% cut

+197%

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.

Defender Gauntletsby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	49s 50c	40s	12	1.451	1
01:00	02:00	21s 60c	19s 67c	20	0.910	3
02:00	03:00	10s	9s 50c	23	0.603	2
03:00	04:00	11s	9s	25	0.686	2
04:00	05:00	22s	8s 50c	34	0.869	2
05:00	06:00	24s 50c	17s	16	0.846	2
06:00	07:00	23s 56c	12s 75c	20	0.846	4
07:00	08:00	24s 13c	12s 75c	20	0.864	4
08:00	09:00	26s 75c	12s 75c	16	0.951	4
09:00	10:00	23s 38c	12s 75c	14	0.860	4
10:00	11:00	23s 75c	11s 50c	15	0.881	4
11:00	12:00	18s 33c	11s 67c	15	0.800	3
12:00	13:00	16s 67c	8s	25	0.921	1
13:00	14:00	23s	11s 33c	19	1.118	3
14:00	15:00	32s	10s 50c	20	1.808	2
15:00	16:00	26s 63c	8s 50c	21	1.480	2
16:00	17:00	25s 88c	16s	16	1.138	4
17:00	18:00	19s 33c	13s 33c	16	0.836	3
18:00	19:00	18s 17c	8s 50c	24	0.915	2
19:00	20:00	19s 67c	12s 33c	17	0.806	3
20:00	21:00	21s 57c	9s 50c	23	0.992	2
21:00	22:00	13s	9s	16	0.753	1
22:00	23:00	23s	8s	22	1.058	3
23:00	00:00	43s	19s 33c	11	1.608	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/6577 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 Defender Gauntlets?: On PvP Alliance EU, Defender Gauntlets is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 197% 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.