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, Regal Sash is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 CET) and dearest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 63% 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

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

08:00 to 11:00 CET · index 0.854 · typical 63s 55c

Best hours to sell

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 CET · index 1.124 · typical 90s 4c

Spread after the 5% cut

+63%

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.

Regal Sashby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	90s 50c	88s	11	0.834	2
01:00	02:00	93s 33c	78s 67c	9	0.933	3
02:00	03:00	72s 67c	43s 67c	13	0.941	3
03:00	04:00	99s	60s	6	1.143	1
04:00	05:00	64s 67c	44s	13	0.877	3
05:00	06:00	91s 67c	78s 67c	7	0.951	3
06:00	07:00	1g 20s 67c	81s 33c	5	1.220	3
07:00	08:00	88s 75c	69s	7	0.994	4
08:00	09:00	50s 67c	44s	9	0.768	3
09:00	10:00	51s 22c	44s	9	0.802	3
10:00	11:00	68s 11c	43s 67c	11	1.005	3
11:00	12:00	77s 13c	57s	8	1.025	4
12:00	13:00	61s 50c	43s	11	0.988	3
13:00	14:00	64s	56s 50c	11	0.905	4
14:00	15:00	91s	65s 33c	9	1.090	3
15:00	16:00	82s 22c	65s 33c	10	0.981	3
16:00	17:00	88s 67c	65s 33c	10	1.095	3
17:00	18:00	95s 33c	65s 33c	10	1.210	3
18:00	19:00	86s 11c	65s 33c	12	1.068	3
19:00	20:00	82s 92c	65s 33c	11	1.047	3
20:00	21:00	83s 67c	64s 67c	12	1.051	3
21:00	22:00	1g 3s 80c	99s	2	1.081	1
22:00	23:00	81s 17c	57s 50c	7	0.961	2
23:00	00:00	96s 44c	70s 50c	8	1.033	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.eu/7476 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.938	1.084	2
01:00	02:00	0.977	1.027	5
02:00	03:00	1.001	1.043	5
03:00	04:00	1.016	1.014	2
04:00	05:00	1.015	0.925	4
05:00	06:00	1.026	0.828	4
06:00	07:00	1.020	0.808	5
07:00	08:00	1.035	0.811	6
08:00	09:00	1.039	0.804	6
09:00	10:00	1.022	0.870	6
10:00	11:00	1.035	0.924	6
11:00	12:00	1.030	0.940	6
12:00	13:00	0.998	1.074	4
13:00	14:00	0.997	1.101	5
14:00	15:00	0.994	0.993	4
15:00	16:00	0.986	1.033	4
16:00	17:00	0.979	1.063	5
17:00	18:00	0.977	1.110	4
18:00	19:00	0.966	1.148	3
19:00	20:00	0.999	1.080	4
20:00	21:00	0.960	1.183	3
21:00	22:00	0.970	1.033	1
22:00	23:00	0.980	1.110	3
23:00	00:00	1.040	0.993	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 Regal Sash?: On PvP Alliance EU, Regal Sash is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (08:00 to 11:00 CET) and dearest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 63% 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.