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 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 PvP Alliance US, Goretusk Liver Pie is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific) and dearest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 245% after the 5 percent cut.

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

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 Pacific · index 0.807 · typical 93c

Best hours to sell

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 Pacific · index 1.241 · typical 2s 81c

Spread after the 5% cut

+245%

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

Goretusk Liver Pieby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	90c	68c	85	0.937	3
01:00	17:00	78c	74c	37	1.090	3
02:00	18:00	80c	73c	76	1.111	2
03:00	19:00	80c	72c	75	1.113	2
04:00	20:00	86c	69c	74	1.010	3
05:00	21:00	80c	70c	63	1.010	4
06:00	22:00	76c	67c	59	0.973	4
07:00	23:00	2s 80c	2s 70c	47	1.222	5
08:00	00:00	3s 29c	3s 15c	41	1.321	4
09:00	01:00	2s 33c	1s 70c	44	1.178	4
10:00	02:00	2s	95c	49	1.128	5
11:00	03:00	73c	68c	49	1.033	3
12:00	04:00	3s 38c	1s 38c	56	1.247	2
13:00	05:00	2s 1c	1s 10c	55	1.046	3
14:00	06:00	1s 28c	1s	65	0.939	4
15:00	07:00	1s 43c	1s 9c	75	0.893	3
16:00	08:00	1s 27c	99c	62	0.927	4
17:00	09:00	1s 1c	88c	63	0.857	4
18:00	10:00	1s 13c	1s 3c	55	0.852	3
19:00	11:00	1s 6c	86c	65	0.841	3
20:00	12:00	94c	81c	63	0.794	3
21:00	13:00	99c	81c	101	0.791	2
22:00	14:00	85c	70c	93	0.836	3
23:00	15:00	79c	71c	76	0.853	4

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.us/724 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.025	0.959	4
01:00	17:00	1.082	0.840	3
02:00	18:00	0.993	1.061	3
03:00	19:00	1.011	1.016	3
04:00	20:00	0.995	1.074	4
05:00	21:00	1.000	1.092	5
06:00	22:00	1.020	1.143	4
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.194	5
08:00	00:00	1.011	1.116	4
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.133	4
10:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	5
11:00	03:00	0.999	1.090	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.987	2
13:00	05:00	0.990	0.984	3
14:00	06:00	0.995	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	0.973	0.963	3
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.938	4
17:00	09:00	0.974	0.888	4
18:00	10:00	0.977	0.935	3
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.902	3
20:00	12:00	0.984	0.913	3
21:00	13:00	0.992	0.839	2
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.927	3
23:00	15:00	1.003	0.962	4

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 Goretusk Liver Pie?: On PvP Alliance US, Goretusk Liver Pie is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific) and dearest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 245% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.