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, Westfall Stew is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 141% 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

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 0.823 · typical 1s 77c

Best hours to sell

10:00 to 13:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 CET · index 1.335 · typical 3s 6c

Spread after the 5% cut

+141%

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.

Westfall Stewby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	1s 83c	1s 20c	272	0.793	1
01:00	02:00	1s 83c	1s 20c	127	0.912	3
02:00	03:00	1s 85c	1s 53c	75	0.923	2
03:00	04:00	1s 81c	1s 61c	69	0.902	2
04:00	05:00	1s 28c	1s 20c	81	0.656	2
05:00	06:00	1s 91c	1s 55c	100	1.028	2
06:00	07:00	1s 67c	1s 45c	59	0.849	5
07:00	08:00	1s 78c	1s 55c	54	0.899	5
08:00	09:00	2s 26c	1s 58c	51	1.134	5
09:00	10:00	2s 14c	1s 97c	59	1.054	5
10:00	11:00	2s 20c	1s 93c	68	1.109	5
11:00	12:00	2s 90c	2s 65c	102	1.292	4
12:00	13:00	4s 7c	1s 95c	119	1.604	2
13:00	14:00	2s 12c	1s 58c	171	1.094	3
14:00	15:00	2s 89c	2s 43c	168	1.267	3
15:00	16:00	2s 89c	1s 73c	200	1.267	3
16:00	17:00	2s 23c	1s 66c	190	1.042	4
17:00	18:00	2s 30c	1s 52c	248	1.029	3
18:00	19:00	1s 77c	1s 34c	255	0.896	2
19:00	20:00	2s 2c	1s 48c	232	0.935	3
20:00	21:00	1s 54c	1s 19c	216	0.770	2
21:00	22:00	1s 42c	1s 38c	77	0.810	1
22:00	23:00	1s 90c	1s 63c	109	0.972	3
23:00	00:00	1s 64c	1s 21c	182	0.765	3

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/733 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 Westfall Stew?: On PvP Alliance EU, Westfall Stew is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET) and dearest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 141% 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.