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, Twisted Chanter's Staff is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific) and dearest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 280% 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

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

03:00 to 06:00 Pacific · index 0.847 · typical 1g 37s 91c

Best hours to sell

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 Pacific · index 1.150 · typical 3g 74s 30c

Spread after the 5% cut

+280%

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.

Twisted Chanter's Staffby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	3g 14s 43c	2g 69s 67c	20	1.145	3
01:00	17:00	96s	87s 50c	28	1.036	2
02:00	18:00	95s 50c	85s	29	1.023	2
03:00	19:00	97s	90s	24	1.041	2
04:00	20:00	2g 1s 17c	1g 51s 33c	22	0.985	3
05:00	21:00	1g 48s 13c	1g 27s 50c	19	0.965	4
06:00	22:00	1g 40s 67c	1g 24s 50c	18	0.943	4
07:00	23:00	1g 27s 38c	92s 50c	19	0.877	4
08:00	00:00	1g 39s 83c	97s 33c	16	0.856	3
09:00	01:00	1g 44s 67c	94s 33c	14	0.930	3
10:00	02:00	1g 31s	1g 2s	15	0.972	4
11:00	03:00	1g 35s 73c	88s	14	0.944	3
12:00	04:00	1g 58s	1g 1s	22	0.728	1
13:00	05:00	1g 20s	92s	12	0.870	2
14:00	06:00	3g 4s 50c	2g 89s 25c	7	1.044	4
15:00	07:00	3g 54s	3g 52s 33c	5	1.112	3
16:00	08:00	2g 95s	2g 86s 50c	8	0.997	4
17:00	09:00	2g 89s 33c	2g 88s 75c	9	0.995	4
18:00	10:00	3g 50s 67c	3g 47s 67c	8	0.981	3
19:00	11:00	3g 50s 67c	3g 44s 33c	9	1.017	3
20:00	12:00	3g 43s 33c	3g 27s 67c	13	1.173	3
21:00	13:00	4g 60s 25c	4g 25s	8	1.212	2
22:00	14:00	3g 19s 33c	3g 11s 33c	10	1.066	3
23:00	15:00	2g 63s 63c	2g 56s	14	1.087	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/890 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 Twisted Chanter's Staff?: On PvP Alliance US, Twisted Chanter's Staff is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific) and dearest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 280% 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.