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 EU 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 EU, Bubbling Water is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 637% after the 5 percent cut.

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

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

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 CET · index 0.421 · typical 1s 17c

Best hours to sell

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 CET · index 1.621 · typical 8s 22c

Spread after the 5% cut

+637%

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.

Bubbling Waterby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	15s	1s	3	1.896	1
01:00	02:00	8s 7c	2s 87c	34	1.516	3
02:00	03:00	4s 11c	3s 73c	51	1.408	2
03:00	04:00	4s 5c	2s 18c	54	1.385	2
04:00	05:00	3s 66c	3s 40c	59	1.330	2
05:00	06:00	8s 33c	8s 18c	25	1.302	2
06:00	07:00	5s 96c	4s 59c	38	1.307	4
07:00	08:00	5s 92c	4s 59c	31	1.293	4
08:00	09:00	5s 89c	4s 35c	28	1.258	4
09:00	10:00	5s 39c	4s 33c	28	1.213	4
10:00	11:00	5s 63c	1s 47c	32	0.891	3
11:00	12:00	5s 48c	5s 46c	34	0.842	3
12:00	13:00	1s 54c	1s 50c	26	0.523	2
13:00	14:00	5s 47c	2s 97c	43	0.844	3
14:00	15:00	1s 47c	1s 23c	31	0.504	3
15:00	16:00	1s 45c	1s 22c	36	0.496	3
16:00	17:00	2s 82c	1s 88c	38	0.574	4
17:00	18:00	1s 53c	1s 27c	50	0.597	2
18:00	19:00	1s 52c	1s 16c	51	0.591	2
19:00	20:00	1s 30c	1s 18c	34	0.440	3
20:00	21:00	1s 22c	1s	44	0.539	2
21:00	22:00	1s	1s	1	0.285	1
22:00	23:00	5s 62c	1s 53c	49	1.706	3
23:00	00:00	4s 5c	3s 36c	33	1.260	3

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.eu/9451 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.985	1.123	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.052	4
02:00	03:00	1.049	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.039	1.030	3
05:00	06:00	1.060	0.801	2
06:00	07:00	1.024	0.876	5
07:00	08:00	1.037	0.820	5
08:00	09:00	1.021	0.886	5
09:00	10:00	1.003	0.942	5
10:00	11:00	1.069	0.754	5
11:00	12:00	0.989	0.900	4
12:00	13:00	0.983	0.872	2
13:00	14:00	0.988	0.988	3
14:00	15:00	0.986	1.010	3
15:00	16:00	0.978	1.064	3
16:00	17:00	0.969	1.090	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.115	3
18:00	19:00	0.960	1.155	2
19:00	20:00	0.990	1.040	3
20:00	21:00	0.954	1.160	2
21:00	22:00	0.964	1.073	1
22:00	23:00	0.953	1.150	3
23:00	00:00	0.999	1.092	3

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 Bubbling Water?: On PvP Alliance EU, Bubbling Water is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 637% 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 EU through the night fills the gaps.