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 Horde CN 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 Horde CN, Harbinger Boots is cheapest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 China time) and dearest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 China time). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 110% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Horde CN. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/horde/cn

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

10:00 to 13:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 China time · index 0.863 · typical 72s 8c

Best hours to sell

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 China time · index 1.037 · typical 1g 37s 78c

Spread after the 5% cut

+110%

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.

Harbinger Bootsby hour · PvP Horde CN

Hour (UTC)	China time	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	09:00	90s	80s	13	1.093	1
02:00	10:00	88s	78s	18	1.098	1
04:00	12:00	76s	57s	34	1.051	1
07:00	15:00	1g 40s	1g 20s	21	0.997	1
08:00	16:00	1g 38s 33c	1g 1s	26	1.071	1
09:00	17:00	1g 35s	1g 1s	29	1.045	1
10:00	18:00	60s	57s	19	0.830	1
11:00	19:00	96s 25c	70s	16	0.928	2
12:00	20:00	60s	60s	9	0.830	1
14:00	22:00	80s 25c	76s	15	0.849	2
15:00	23:00	86s 50c	83s 33c	12	0.769	3
16:00	00:00	72s	72s	3	1.082	1
18:00	02:00	2g	1g 50s	7	1.155	1
19:00	03:00	2g	2g	7	1.203	1

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.horde.cn/7754 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde CN

Hour (UTC)	China time	Price index	Listings index	Days
01:00	09:00	1.002	0.698	1
02:00	10:00	1.020	0.683	1
04:00	12:00	1.075	0.708	1
07:00	15:00	1.032	0.923	1
08:00	16:00	1.042	0.934	1
09:00	17:00	1.025	0.978	1
10:00	18:00	0.992	1.050	1
11:00	19:00	0.990	1.064	2
12:00	20:00	0.987	1.118	1
14:00	22:00	0.945	1.195	2
15:00	23:00	0.981	1.207	3
16:00	00:00	0.940	1.384	1
17:00	01:00	0.997	1.080	1
18:00	02:00	0.987	1.058	1
19:00	03:00	0.986	0.920	1

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 Harbinger Boots?: On PvP Horde CN, Harbinger Boots is cheapest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 China time) and dearest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 China time). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 110% 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 Horde CN through the night fills the gaps.