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, Gizmotron Megachopper is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 328% 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

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 Pacific · index 0.550 · typical 5g 76s 6c

Best hours to sell

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 Pacific · index 1.630 · typical 23g 8s

Spread after the 5% cut

+328%

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.

Gizmotron Megachopperby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	5g 87s 50c	4g 97s 50c	8	1.075	2
01:00	17:00	5g 49s 50c	4g 47s 50c	9	1.018	2
02:00	18:00	5g 18s 50c	4g 12s 50c	11	0.948	2
03:00	19:00	4g 98s 38c	4g 19s 50c	9	0.949	2
04:00	20:00	4g 37s 38c	4g 12s 50c	10	0.853	2
05:00	21:00	3g 99s 67c	3g 66s 33c	8	0.633	3
06:00	22:00	4g 93s 56c	4g 25s	6	1.018	3
07:00	23:00	17g 43s	17g 36s	4	1.410	4
08:00	00:00	21g 91s	21g 83s	3	1.557	3
09:00	01:00	29g 75s	29g 62s	4	1.737	2
10:00	02:00	17g 49s	17g 11s	3	1.491	4
11:00	03:00	21g 99s	21g 99s	1	1.661	3
12:00	04:00	5g	5g	1	1.106	1
13:00	05:00	5g 49s 50c	5g 49s 50c	2	1.146	2
14:00	06:00	7g 74s 50c	7g 74s 50c	5	0.857	2
15:00	07:00	7g 74s 50c	7g 62s 50c	6	0.877	2
16:00	08:00	7g 74s 50c	7g 62s 50c	5	0.896	2
17:00	09:00	6g 56s 33c	6g 31s 67c	4	0.924	3
18:00	10:00	6g 75s	6g 50s	4	0.735	2
19:00	11:00	6g 75s	6g 50s	4	0.543	2
20:00	12:00	6g 99s 50c	5g 62s 50c	6	0.915	2
21:00	13:00	6g 84s 67c	5g 99s	8	0.557	1
22:00	14:00	5g 38s 50c	4g 99s 50c	7	0.443	2
23:00	15:00	5g 5s	4g 36s 67c	6	0.650	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.us/9490 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 Gizmotron Megachopper?: On PvP Alliance US, Gizmotron Megachopper is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 328% 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.