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, Bandit Pants is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 339% 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

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 CET · index 0.755 · typical 26s 75c

Best hours to sell

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 CET · index 1.384 · typical 57s 81c

Spread after the 5% cut

+339%

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.

Bandit Pantsby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	29s 50c	24s	19	0.699	1
01:00	02:00	32s 20c	14s 33c	32	0.888	3
02:00	03:00	33s	10s	37	0.886	2
03:00	04:00	32s 75c	10s	37	0.866	2
04:00	05:00	32s	11s	45	0.820	2
05:00	06:00	21s	14s	22	0.651	2
06:00	07:00	27s 25c	12s 50c	30	0.794	4
07:00	08:00	31s	15s 80c	21	0.844	5
08:00	09:00	31s 76c	15s 20c	22	0.882	5
09:00	10:00	29s	15s	23	0.806	5
10:00	11:00	33s 70c	14s 80c	24	0.926	5
11:00	12:00	33s 46c	15s 50c	16	0.898	4
12:00	13:00	37s	20s	15	0.842	2
13:00	14:00	30s 33c	10s 67c	32	0.898	3
14:00	15:00	62s	35s 67c	22	1.454	3
15:00	16:00	62s 17c	35s 67c	22	1.448	3
16:00	17:00	49s 25c	29s 75c	27	1.249	4
17:00	18:00	59s 29c	35s 67c	25	1.394	3
18:00	19:00	45s	12s 50c	36	1.150	2
19:00	20:00	53s 7c	18s 67c	26	1.269	3
20:00	21:00	40s 22c	10s	47	1.018	2
21:00	22:00	41s 60c	10s	35	0.992	1
22:00	23:00	43s 78c	10s 67c	38	1.319	3
23:00	00:00	40s 45c	15s 33c	30	1.007	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/9781 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.996	1.109	1
01:00	02:00	1.008	1.050	4
02:00	03:00	1.044	1.010	3
03:00	04:00	1.032	0.998	2
04:00	05:00	1.037	1.005	3
05:00	06:00	1.065	0.787	2
06:00	07:00	1.026	0.845	5
07:00	08:00	1.040	0.797	5
08:00	09:00	1.022	0.854	5
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.906	5
10:00	11:00	1.044	0.920	5
11:00	12:00	0.998	0.902	4
12:00	13:00	0.985	0.879	2
13:00	14:00	0.991	1.004	3
14:00	15:00	0.989	1.018	3
15:00	16:00	0.984	1.066	3
16:00	17:00	0.968	1.087	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.104	3
18:00	19:00	0.959	1.143	2
19:00	20:00	0.995	1.027	3
20:00	21:00	0.950	1.170	2
21:00	22:00	0.944	1.085	1
22:00	23:00	0.949	1.148	3
23:00	00:00	1.000	1.086	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 Bandit Pants?: On PvP Alliance EU, Bandit Pants is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 339% 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.