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 US 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 US, Raw Mithril Head Trout is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific) and dearest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 1498% after the 5 percent cut.

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

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

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 Pacific · index 0.507 · typical 2s 66c

Best hours to sell

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 Pacific · index 1.915 · typical 27s 97c

Spread after the 5% cut

+1498%

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.

Raw Mithril Head Troutby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1s 95c	1s 41c	15	0.567	3
01:00	17:00	2s 56c	1s 93c	13	0.525	3
02:00	18:00	3s 37c	2s 26c	16	1.021	2
03:00	19:00	3s 32c	3s 16c	18	1.016	2
04:00	20:00	3s 11c	2s 80c	28	0.712	3
05:00	21:00	4s 56c	2s 34c	25	0.833	4
06:00	22:00	4s 8c	2s 65c	27	0.757	4
07:00	23:00	4s 40c	2s 83c	27	0.819	4
08:00	00:00	6s 40c	3s 16c	21	1.239	2
09:00	01:00	5s 77c	3s 74c	17	0.893	3
10:00	02:00	5s 2c	4s 97c	22	1.124	3
11:00	03:00	19s 29c	19s 28c	18	1.671	3
12:00	04:00	46s	46s	8	2.554	1
13:00	05:00	18s 63c	18s 16c	13	1.520	3
14:00	06:00	14s 88c	5s 86c	16	1.304	4
15:00	07:00	4s 62c	4s 32c	21	0.911	3
16:00	08:00	10s 34c	3s 96c	19	1.078	4
17:00	09:00	5s 96c	3s 56c	21	0.851	4
18:00	10:00	6s 61c	4s 11c	18	0.833	3
19:00	11:00	6s 63c	4s 11c	17	0.855	3
20:00	12:00	4s 36c	3s 41c	18	0.952	3
21:00	13:00	5s 9c	4s 30c	18	1.011	2
22:00	14:00	2s 95c	1s 83c	10	0.426	3
23:00	15:00	3s 7c	1s 75c	16	0.527	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.us/8365 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.025	0.959	4
01:00	17:00	1.082	0.840	3
02:00	18:00	0.993	1.061	3
03:00	19:00	1.011	1.016	3
04:00	20:00	0.995	1.074	4
05:00	21:00	1.000	1.092	5
06:00	22:00	1.020	1.143	4
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.194	5
08:00	00:00	1.011	1.116	4
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.133	4
10:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	5
11:00	03:00	0.999	1.090	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.987	2
13:00	05:00	0.990	0.984	3
14:00	06:00	0.995	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	0.973	0.963	3
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.938	4
17:00	09:00	0.974	0.888	4
18:00	10:00	0.977	0.935	3
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.902	3
20:00	12:00	0.984	0.913	3
21:00	13:00	0.992	0.839	2
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.927	3
23:00	15:00	1.003	0.962	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 Raw Mithril Head Trout?: On PvP Alliance US, Raw Mithril Head Trout is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific) and dearest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 1498% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.