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, Scouting Boots is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 CET) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 111% 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 0.703 · typical 16s 25c

Best hours to sell

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 CET · index 1.326 · typical 29s 40c

Spread after the 5% cut

+111%

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.

Scouting Bootsby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	28s	15s	13	1.256	1
01:00	02:00	19s	12s 33c	36	0.862	3
02:00	03:00	15s 50c	11s	44	0.745	2
03:00	04:00	14s 25c	10s 50c	41	0.695	2
04:00	05:00	26s 50c	15s	34	1.191	2
05:00	06:00	18s 50c	12s 50c	21	0.806	2
06:00	07:00	18s 50c	13s 75c	21	0.807	4
07:00	08:00	18s 50c	15s 20c	15	0.784	5
08:00	09:00	15s	12s 50c	21	0.655	4
09:00	10:00	15s 25c	12s	24	0.668	4
10:00	11:00	18s 38c	12s 50c	22	0.814	4
11:00	12:00	15s 79c	9s 75c	13	0.739	4
12:00	13:00	12s 67c	9s	14	0.653	2
13:00	14:00	21s 67c	11s 33c	17	1.034	3
14:00	15:00	21s	10s	21	1.027	2
15:00	16:00	24s 42c	17s 67c	15	1.088	3
16:00	17:00	34s 44c	13s	15	1.612	4
17:00	18:00	22s 87c	12s 33c	16	1.019	3
18:00	19:00	22s 67c	11s	22	1.042	2
19:00	20:00	25s 33c	15s 67c	13	1.123	3
20:00	21:00	31s 7c	14s	19	1.465	2
21:00	22:00	31s 80c	15s	18	1.391	1
22:00	23:00	21s 89c	10s 67c	31	1.049	3
23:00	00:00	31s 67c	12s 33c	19	1.473	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/6582 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 Scouting Boots?: On PvP Alliance EU, Scouting Boots is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 CET) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 111% 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.