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, Staff of Jordan is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 China time) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 China time). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 74% 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

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 China time · index 0.899 · typical 185g 91s

Best hours to sell

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 China time · index 1.040 · typical 296g 33s

Spread after the 5% cut

+74%

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.

Staff of Jordanby hour · PvP Horde CN

Hour (UTC)	China time	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	09:00	255g	254g	10	1.111	1
02:00	10:00	254g	240g	14	1.142	1
04:00	12:00	230g	197g 77s	17	1.121	1
07:00	15:00	188g 56s	160g 1s	15	0.870	1
08:00	16:00	184g 67s	170g	13	0.914	1
09:00	17:00	184g 51s	155g	14	0.913	1
10:00	18:00	199g	196g	14	0.970	1
11:00	19:00	184g	172g 26s	15	0.903	2
12:00	20:00	196g 99s	190g 98s	16	0.960	1
14:00	22:00	175g 49s	157g	22	0.880	1
15:00	23:00	257g 16s	237g 33s	8	1.104	3
16:00	00:00	190g 98s	165g 99s	15	0.993	1
17:00	01:00	298g	296g	5	1.019	1
18:00	02:00	296g	294g 90s	6	1.013	1
19:00	03:00	295g	260g	9	1.088	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/873 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 Staff of Jordan?: On PvP Horde CN, Staff of Jordan is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 China time) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 China time). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 74% 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.