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, Crimson Silk Vest is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 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 25% 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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 CET · index 0.837 · typical 48s 33c

Best hours to sell

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 1.081 · typical 56s 91c

Spread after the 5% cut

+25%

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.

Crimson Silk Vestby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	87s 20c	59s	17	1.156	2
02:00	03:00	59s	59s	20	0.817	2
03:00	04:00	59s	44s	22	0.841	2
04:00	05:00	27s	26s 50c	54	0.853	2
05:00	06:00	89s	88s	10	1.008	1
06:00	07:00	47s 33c	44s 33c	30	0.934	3
07:00	08:00	45s 33c	44s 33c	30	0.934	3
08:00	09:00	44s 67c	44s	37	0.947	3
09:00	10:00	44s 33c	34s 33c	33	0.951	3
10:00	11:00	44s 17c	34s	36	0.967	3
11:00	12:00	54s 17c	38s 50c	27	1.011	2
12:00	13:00	28s 33c	27s	14	0.991	1
13:00	14:00	54s 50c	53s 50c	13	1.051	2
14:00	15:00	54s	53s 50c	17	1.081	2
15:00	16:00	53s 50c	53s	18	1.098	2
16:00	17:00	48s 50c	41s 50c	33	1.048	2
17:00	18:00	48s 50c	41s 50c	35	1.049	2
18:00	19:00	48s 50c	40s	39	1.076	2
19:00	20:00	41s 25c	37s	49	0.981	2
20:00	21:00	39s	33s 50c	67	0.964	2
21:00	22:00	53s 40c	30s	44	1.002	1
22:00	23:00	78s	71s 67c	56	1.203	3
23:00	00:00	39s 34c	27s	91	1.038	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/7058 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 Crimson Silk Vest?: On PvP Alliance EU, Crimson Silk Vest is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 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 25% 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.