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, Red Whelp Gloves is cheapest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 158% 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

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 CET · index 0.863 · typical 34s 98c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 1.128 · typical 86s 50c

Spread after the 5% cut

+158%

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.

Red Whelp Glovesby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	1g 18s 50c	1g 14s	70	1.403	2
02:00	03:00	70s 50c	63s 50c	70	0.973	2
03:00	04:00	70s 50c	61s	69	1.007	2
04:00	05:00	29s	25s	98	0.952	2
05:00	06:00	99s	87s	23	1.044	1
06:00	07:00	52s	44s 67c	53	1.025	3
07:00	08:00	52s	43s	45	1.125	3
08:00	09:00	49s 33c	43s	54	1.005	3
09:00	10:00	45s 17c	43s 33c	64	0.979	3
10:00	11:00	39s 33c	37s 33c	72	0.930	3
11:00	12:00	51s 50c	39s	67	1.008	2
12:00	13:00	32s 33c	25s	84	1.074	1
13:00	14:00	49s	37s	68	0.946	2
14:00	15:00	49s	20s	76	1.001	2
15:00	16:00	46s 50c	17s 50c	121	0.945	2
16:00	17:00	46s 25c	17s 50c	111	0.977	2
17:00	18:00	46s 34c	33s	109	0.992	2
18:00	19:00	35s	32s 50c	111	0.830	2
19:00	20:00	35s 50c	32s	100	0.875	2
20:00	21:00	34s 43c	31s	125	0.883	2
21:00	22:00	47s	42s	73	0.915	1
22:00	23:00	88s	84s 33c	105	1.202	3
23:00	00:00	31s 84c	27s	135	0.907	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/7284 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 Red Whelp Gloves?: On PvP Alliance EU, Red Whelp Gloves is cheapest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 158% 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.