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, Battleforge Cloak is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CET) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 168% 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

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 CET · index 0.555 · typical 23s 7c

Best hours to sell

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 1.371 · typical 53s 32c

Spread after the 5% cut

+168%

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.

Battleforge Cloakby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	22s	22s	1	0.482	1
01:00	02:00	60s 13c	48s 67c	14	1.516	3
02:00	03:00	34s 50c	14s 50c	25	1.076	2
03:00	04:00	34s 75c	15s	22	1.089	2
04:00	05:00	60s	12s	22	1.307	2
05:00	06:00	50s 75c	33s 50c	8	1.290	2
06:00	07:00	47s	22s 75c	12	1.079	4
07:00	08:00	47s 25c	22s 75c	10	1.070	4
08:00	09:00	45s 90c	22s 75c	11	0.998	4
09:00	10:00	40s 75c	22s 75c	13	0.903	4
10:00	11:00	40s 75c	21s 75c	11	0.894	4
11:00	12:00	27s 67c	25s	10	0.664	3
12:00	13:00	14s	12s	10	0.347	1
13:00	14:00	27s 53c	19s 67c	14	0.654	3
14:00	15:00	34s 50c	12s	18	0.943	2
15:00	16:00	19s 13c	11s	19	0.548	2
16:00	17:00	31s 25c	16s 75c	12	0.799	4
17:00	18:00	38s 7c	15s 33c	14	1.021	3
18:00	19:00	40s 50c	12s	23	1.079	2
19:00	20:00	31s 24c	13s 33c	11	0.784	3
20:00	21:00	54s 29c	13s	23	1.344	2
21:00	22:00	47s 40c	14s	31	1.266	1
22:00	23:00	53s 78c	15s 33c	19	1.460	3
23:00	00:00	58s 78c	25s 33c	12	1.387	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/6593 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 Battleforge Cloak?: On PvP Alliance EU, Battleforge Cloak is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CET) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 168% 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.