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, Sage's Boots is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 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 449% 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

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 0.724 · typical 37s 7c

Best hours to sell

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 CET · index 1.305 · typical 78s

Spread after the 5% cut

+449%

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 0 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Sage's Bootsby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	39s 20c	13s 50c	29	0.761	2
02:00	03:00	36s	13s 50c	32	0.707	2
03:00	04:00	36s	13s 50c	31	0.704	2
04:00	05:00	49s	12s	35	0.925	2
05:00	06:00	24s	15s	20	0.596	1
06:00	07:00	40s 75c	13s	25	0.811	3
07:00	08:00	51s 42c	13s	21	0.988	3
08:00	09:00	43s 47c	13s	23	0.861	3
09:00	10:00	36s 88c	14s	16	0.727	4
10:00	11:00	55s 25c	34s 25c	15	1.130	4
11:00	12:00	58s 11c	24s 67c	11	1.133	3
12:00	13:00	65s	12s	21	1.226	1
13:00	14:00	61s	20s 67c	14	1.204	3
14:00	15:00	59s	13s 50c	20	1.104	2
15:00	16:00	44s 13c	13s 50c	26	0.814	2
16:00	17:00	54s 75c	20s 67c	21	1.113	3
17:00	18:00	60s 17c	13s 50c	27	1.083	2
18:00	19:00	70s 17c	13s 50c	28	1.245	2
19:00	20:00	69s 50c	13s 50c	28	1.198	2
20:00	21:00	69s 50c	13s 50c	34	1.195	2
21:00	22:00	95s	15s	23	1.522	1
22:00	23:00	42s 28c	17s	34	0.817	3
23:00	00:00	63s 84c	12s	35	1.136	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/6612 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 Sage's Boots?: On PvP Alliance EU, Sage's Boots is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 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 449% 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.