Skip to content

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 Normal Alliance US, Jouster's Pauldrons is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 95% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/alliance/us

Item

Best hours to buy

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 Pacific · index 0.711 · typical 2g 70s 67c

Best hours to sell

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 1.306 · typical 5g 56s

Spread after the 5% cut

+95%

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.

Jouster's Pauldronsby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)TypicalLowestIndex
00:002g 28s2g 28s0.592
01:003g 56s3g 56s0.949
02:003g 56s3g 56s0.949
04:005g 56s5g 56s1.306
05:005g 56s5g 56s1.306
06:005g 56s5g 56s1.306
10:005g 56s5g 56s1.306
15:003g 56s3g 56s0.949
16:003g 56s3g 56s0.949
17:003g 56s3g 56s0.949
18:003g 56s3g 56s0.949
19:003g 56s3g 56s0.949
22:002g 28s2g 28s0.592
23:003g 56s3g 56s0.949

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.normal.alliance.us/8163 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)Price indexListings indexDays
00:000.9931.0084
01:000.9971.0454
02:000.9841.0795
03:000.9831.1004
04:000.9841.1374
05:000.9871.1664
06:001.0121.2105
07:000.9550.9913
08:000.9721.1301
09:000.9671.1512
10:001.0121.2384
11:000.9841.0523
12:001.1390.7751
13:000.9950.9581
14:001.0120.9094
15:001.0090.8743
16:001.0460.8162
17:000.9900.8514
18:000.9830.8604
19:001.0130.8913
20:000.9740.9483
21:000.9750.9633
22:001.0210.8994
23:001.0130.9492

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 Jouster's Pauldrons?
On Normal Alliance US, Jouster's Pauldrons is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 95% 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 Normal Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.