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 Tunic is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET) and dearest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 83% 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

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 CET · index 0.805 · typical 16s 33c

Best hours to sell

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 CET · index 1.198 · typical 26s 98c

Spread after the 5% cut

+83%

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 Tunicby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	35s	35s	1	1.231	1
01:00	02:00	28s	21s	24	0.995	3
02:00	03:00	24s 50c	14s	33	0.887	2
03:00	04:00	24s 50c	14s	34	0.933	2
04:00	05:00	14s	14s	45	0.971	2
05:00	06:00	35s	24s 50c	14	1.078	2
06:00	07:00	26s	19s 25c	25	1.137	4
07:00	08:00	26s 63c	19s 25c	23	1.159	4
08:00	09:00	25s 75c	17s 75c	23	1.087	4
09:00	10:00	24s 25c	14s 25c	22	1.047	4
10:00	11:00	21s 75c	14s 25c	19	0.968	4
11:00	12:00	23s 28c	14s	22	0.926	3
12:00	13:00	22s	22s	18	1.149	2
13:00	14:00	29s 60c	14s	22	1.158	3
14:00	15:00	29s 33c	16s	19	1.288	3
15:00	16:00	21s 67c	16s	23	1.020	3
16:00	17:00	25s 38c	15s 50c	22	1.000	4
17:00	18:00	19s 13c	16s	26	0.909	3
18:00	19:00	14s	13s 50c	43	0.786	2
19:00	20:00	20s 56c	16s	24	0.982	3
20:00	21:00	14s	14s	43	0.831	2
21:00	22:00	14s	14s	34	0.670	1
22:00	23:00	21s	14s	40	0.916	3
23:00	00:00	14s	14s	43	0.872	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.pvp.alliance.eu/6580 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 Tunic?: On PvP Alliance EU, Defender Tunic is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET) and dearest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 83% 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.