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, Elder's Pants is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 211% 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

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 0.616 · typical 47s 25c

Best hours to sell

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 CET · index 1.615 · typical 1g 30s 78c

Spread after the 5% cut

+211%

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.

Elder's Pantsby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	47s 50c	40s	13	0.623	2
02:00	03:00	47s	40s	11	0.610	2
03:00	04:00	47s 25c	40s	11	0.615	2
04:00	05:00	72s	30s	18	0.803	2
05:00	06:00	50s	50s	3	0.690	1
06:00	07:00	64s 67c	36s 67c	12	0.761	3
07:00	08:00	96s 67c	36s 67c	11	1.126	3
08:00	09:00	1g 61s 67c	36s 67c	12	2.084	3
09:00	10:00	1g 23s 33c	36s 67c	14	1.543	3
10:00	11:00	1g 7s 33c	35s	13	1.217	3
11:00	12:00	83s 33c	38s 33c	8	1.019	3
12:00	13:00	1g 44s 33c	30s	13	1.515	1
13:00	14:00	95s 93c	41s 67c	10	1.270	3
14:00	15:00	99s 50c	37s 50c	12	1.265	2
15:00	16:00	83s 88c	37s 50c	14	1.040	2
16:00	17:00	66s 92c	41s 33c	12	0.869	3
17:00	18:00	66s	37s 50c	18	0.752	2
18:00	19:00	66s	36s	20	0.756	2
19:00	20:00	75s 10c	36s	16	0.809	2
20:00	21:00	75s 36c	36s	26	0.804	2
21:00	22:00	45s	42s	22	0.663	1
22:00	23:00	73s 89c	35s	21	0.885	3
23:00	00:00	1g 6s 67c	30s	24	1.280	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/7368 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 Elder's Pants?: On PvP Alliance EU, Elder's Pants is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 211% 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.