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 Legguards is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 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 133% 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

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 CET · index 0.846 · typical 39s 67c

Best hours to sell

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 CET · index 1.143 · typical 63s 56c

Spread after the 5% cut

+133%

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 Legguardsby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	92s	50s	2	1.097	1
01:00	02:00	47s 73c	34s 33c	18	0.869	3
02:00	03:00	49s	27s	29	1.092	2
03:00	04:00	47s 50c	27s	27	1.053	2
04:00	05:00	60s	23s 50c	33	1.013	2
05:00	06:00	35s	28s	24	0.954	1
06:00	07:00	44s	25s	24	0.837	3
07:00	08:00	40s	24s 67c	22	0.747	3
08:00	09:00	63s 25c	40s 75c	17	1.000	4
09:00	10:00	60s 25c	40s 75c	18	0.898	4
10:00	11:00	56s 13c	43s 50c	16	0.848	4
11:00	12:00	62s 33c	32s 67c	12	0.980	3
12:00	13:00	66s	24s	22	1.180	1
13:00	14:00	67s 67c	32s 33c	18	1.116	3
14:00	15:00	57s	23s 50c	25	1.132	2
15:00	16:00	47s 67c	29s 33c	18	0.882	3
16:00	17:00	48s 33c	29s 33c	27	0.849	3
17:00	18:00	54s 67c	24s	30	1.072	2
18:00	19:00	53s 67c	23s 50c	35	1.068	2
19:00	20:00	56s 10c	23s 50c	28	1.118	2
20:00	21:00	53s 72c	23s 50c	34	1.029	2
21:00	22:00	55s	24s	28	1.199	1
22:00	23:00	52s 89c	27s 33c	31	0.996	3
23:00	00:00	55s	23s 50c	34	0.972	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/6596 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 Legguards?: On PvP Alliance EU, Battleforge Legguards is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 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 133% 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.