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, Infiltrator Cap is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 97% 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 0.756 · typical 2g 33s 33c

Best hours to sell

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 CET · index 1.210 · typical 3g 75s 56c

Spread after the 5% cut

+97%

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.

Infiltrator Capby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	2g 48s	1g 16s 50c	12	0.745	2
02:00	03:00	2g 95s	2g 16s 50c	10	0.877	2
03:00	04:00	2g 52s 50c	2g 16s 50c	10	0.741	2
04:00	05:00	1g 52s 50c	1g 10s 50c	20	0.651	2
05:00	06:00	4g 99s	4g 99s	1	1.263	1
06:00	07:00	2g 68s	2g 36s	11	0.881	3
07:00	08:00	2g 67s 33c	2g 43s 33c	9	0.887	3
08:00	09:00	2g 66s 33c	2g 36s 67c	10	0.906	3
09:00	10:00	2g 64s 33c	2g 36s 67c	9	0.907	3
10:00	11:00	2g 55s 33c	1g 85s	10	0.895	3
11:00	12:00	3g 9s 92c	2g 49s 25c	7	1.098	4
12:00	13:00	2g 63s 33c	1g	8	1.147	1
13:00	14:00	3g 63s 13c	2g 83s 33c	6	1.217	3
14:00	15:00	3g 2s	1g 47s 50c	9	0.984	2
15:00	16:00	3g 2s	1g 11s	10	0.997	2
16:00	17:00	2g 76s 83c	1g 33s 33c	8	0.937	3
17:00	18:00	3g 22s 50c	1g	12	1.095	2
18:00	19:00	3g 24s	1g 50s	9	1.132	2
19:00	20:00	3g 95s 17c	2g	11	1.297	2
20:00	21:00	2g 88s 50c	2g	15	1.014	2
21:00	22:00	4g 43s	2g 50s	10	1.321	1
22:00	23:00	2g 33s 33c	1g 54s 67c	15	0.793	3
23:00	00:00	3g 33s 34c	1g 52s 50c	18	1.216	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/7413 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.999	1.123	1
01:00	02:00	1.013	1.062	4
02:00	03:00	1.056	1.023	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	1.017	2
04:00	05:00	1.041	1.000	3
05:00	06:00	1.055	0.794	2
06:00	07:00	1.023	0.843	5
07:00	08:00	1.042	0.789	5
08:00	09:00	1.026	0.838	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.882	5
10:00	11:00	1.031	0.913	5
11:00	12:00	0.983	1.040	5
12:00	13:00	0.977	0.873	2
13:00	14:00	0.985	1.003	3
14:00	15:00	0.982	1.004	3
15:00	16:00	0.975	1.048	3
16:00	17:00	0.966	1.074	4
17:00	18:00	0.962	1.087	3
18:00	19:00	0.952	1.128	2
19:00	20:00	1.002	1.025	3
20:00	21:00	0.962	1.153	2
21:00	22:00	0.954	1.066	1
22:00	23:00	0.961	1.143	3
23:00	00:00	1.005	1.075	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 Infiltrator Cap?: On PvP Alliance EU, Infiltrator Cap is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 97% 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.