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 Normal Alliance US 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 Normal Alliance US, Sage's Cloak is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 231% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/alliance/us

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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 Pacific · index 0.585 · typical 30s 67c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 Pacific · index 1.351 · typical 73s 81c

Spread after the 5% cut

+231%

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.

Sage's Cloakby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	49s 78c	27s	18	0.851	3
01:00	17:00	49s	32s	19	0.784	2
02:00	18:00	37s 67c	26s 33c	20	0.658	3
03:00	19:00	38s 33c	24s 67c	22	0.693	3
04:00	20:00	16s	12s 50c	23	0.406	2
05:00	21:00	35s	12s 50c	23	0.717	2
06:00	22:00	55s 33c	19s 67c	24	1.030	3
07:00	23:00	50s	16s 50c	12	0.775	2
08:00	00:00	1g	13s	23	1.635	1
09:00	01:00	64s 67c	36s 50c	13	0.922	2
10:00	02:00	65s 67c	36s 67c	9	1.079	3
11:00	03:00	81s 67c	30s	8	1.312	3
12:00	04:00	37s	37s	1	1.038	1
13:00	05:00	1g	13s	13	1.686	1
14:00	06:00	67s 75c	43s 75c	8	1.217	4
15:00	07:00	53s 67c	24s	9	1.149	3
16:00	08:00	35s 50c	26s	8	0.955	2
17:00	09:00	58s	44s 67c	10	0.966	3
18:00	10:00	59s 67c	44s 67c	11	0.985	3
19:00	11:00	50s	13s 50c	12	1.039	2
20:00	12:00	75s	34s	15	1.143	2
21:00	13:00	75s	33s 50c	15	1.170	2
22:00	14:00	51s 33c	27s 33c	15	0.859	3
23:00	15:00	48s	14s	18	0.933	1

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.normal.alliance.us/6614 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.999	1.031	4
01:00	17:00	0.992	1.055	4
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.119	5
03:00	19:00	0.998	1.158	4
04:00	20:00	0.994	1.182	4
05:00	21:00	1.007	1.211	4
06:00	22:00	1.014	1.255	5
07:00	23:00	0.955	0.998	3
08:00	00:00	0.968	1.133	1
09:00	01:00	0.966	1.140	2
10:00	02:00	0.974	1.077	3
11:00	03:00	0.991	1.040	3
12:00	04:00	1.105	0.795	1
13:00	05:00	0.985	0.943	1
14:00	06:00	1.009	0.896	4
15:00	07:00	1.000	0.848	3
16:00	08:00	1.046	0.809	2
17:00	09:00	0.999	0.833	4
18:00	10:00	0.990	0.847	4
19:00	11:00	1.018	0.869	3
20:00	12:00	0.982	0.936	3
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.947	3
22:00	14:00	1.028	0.908	4
23:00	15:00	0.994	0.970	2

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 Cloak?: On Normal Alliance US, Sage's Cloak is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 231% 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 Normal Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.