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, Raider's Shield is cheapest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 CET) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 283% 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

03:00 to 06:00 UTC

04:00 to 07:00 CET · index 0.768 · typical 15s 69c

Best hours to sell

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 CET · index 1.352 · typical 40s 51c

Spread after the 5% cut

+283%

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.

Raider's Shieldby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	39s 50c	19s	20	0.967	2
01:00	02:00	22s 10c	14s 25c	29	0.770	4
02:00	03:00	14s 75c	9s	29	0.817	4
03:00	04:00	14s 75c	9s 50c	34	0.757	2
04:00	05:00	15s 33c	8s 67c	22	0.868	3
05:00	06:00	17s	12s	25	0.680	4
06:00	07:00	21s 6c	13s 25c	23	0.919	4
07:00	08:00	22s 20c	12s 20c	20	1.094	5
08:00	09:00	21s 12c	14s	17	1.061	5
09:00	10:00	19s 53c	12s 20c	14	0.989	5
10:00	11:00	19s 20c	11s 60c	13	0.958	5
11:00	12:00	19s 50c	11s 20c	14	0.993	5
12:00	13:00	30s	22s 33c	12	0.981	3
13:00	14:00	20s 95c	12s	18	1.058	4
14:00	15:00	20s 56c	9s 67c	17	1.150	3
15:00	16:00	17s 33c	9s 67c	21	1.003	3
16:00	17:00	21s 71c	14s	15	0.958	5
17:00	18:00	56s 40c	50s	20	1.378	4
18:00	19:00	22s 33c	10s 33c	25	1.243	3
19:00	20:00	42s 79c	16s 75c	19	1.434	4
20:00	21:00	16s 12c	11s 33c	28	0.881	3
21:00	22:00	19s 20c	13s	20	0.985	1
22:00	23:00	19s 44c	9s 67c	26	1.002	3
23:00	00:00	32s 11c	14s 25c	18	1.054	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.eu/9790 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.937	1.088	2
01:00	02:00	0.974	1.030	5
02:00	03:00	1.003	1.044	5
03:00	04:00	1.026	1.003	2
04:00	05:00	1.019	0.931	4
05:00	06:00	1.035	0.837	4
06:00	07:00	1.020	0.813	5
07:00	08:00	1.042	0.838	6
08:00	09:00	1.046	0.832	6
09:00	10:00	1.029	0.903	6
10:00	11:00	1.035	0.974	6
11:00	12:00	0.994	1.064	6
12:00	13:00	1.005	0.899	3
13:00	14:00	0.998	0.967	4
14:00	15:00	0.992	0.995	4
15:00	16:00	0.984	1.035	4
16:00	17:00	0.977	1.075	5
17:00	18:00	0.977	1.117	4
18:00	19:00	0.967	1.157	3
19:00	20:00	0.995	1.083	4
20:00	21:00	0.956	1.187	3
21:00	22:00	0.962	1.043	1
22:00	23:00	0.982	1.102	3
23:00	00:00	1.047	0.981	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 Raider's Shield?: On PvP Alliance EU, Raider's Shield is cheapest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 CET) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 283% 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.