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, Frog Leg Stew is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.

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

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 CET · index 0.987 · typical 1s 15c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 1.008 · typical 1s 19c

Spread after the 5% cut

-1%

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.

Frog Leg Stewby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	1s 20c	1s 19c	9	1.012	1
02:00	03:00	1s 19c	1s 17c	12	1.006	1
03:00	04:00	1s 19c	1s 17c	13	1.007	1
04:00	05:00	1s 14c	1s 13c	20	1.002	2
06:00	07:00	1s 14c	1s 12c	17	1.007	2
07:00	08:00	1s 13c	1s 12c	17	1.000	2
08:00	09:00	1s 13c	1s 12c	15	1.008	2
09:00	10:00	1s 12c	1s 12c	16	1.000	2
10:00	11:00	1s 14c	1s 12c	10	0.999	3
11:00	12:00	1s 18c	1s 18c	4	1.001	2
12:00	13:00	1s 15c	1s 15c	7	1.005	1
13:00	14:00	1s 18c	1s 18c	4	1.002	2
14:00	15:00	1s 18c	1s 18c	5	1.004	2
15:00	16:00	1s 18c	1s 15c	8	1.005	2
16:00	17:00	1s 15c	1s 15c	9	0.986	2
17:00	18:00	1s 15c	1s 15c	10	0.987	2
18:00	19:00	1s 15c	1s 15c	10	0.989	2
19:00	20:00	1s 15c	1s 15c	12	0.992	2
20:00	21:00	1s 15c	1s 15c	14	0.990	2
21:00	22:00	1s 20c	1s 20c	5	1.005	1
22:00	23:00	1s 15c	1s 14c	16	0.995	2
23:00	00:00	1s 15c	1s 14c	15	0.997	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/6807 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 Frog Leg Stew?: On PvP Alliance EU, Frog Leg Stew is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.
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.