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 Normal 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 Normal Alliance US, Ivycloth Sash is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 160% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/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 0.668 · typical 17s 33c

Best hours to sell

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 1.381 · typical 33s 30c

Spread after the 5% cut

+160%

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.

Ivycloth Sashby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	31s	26s 50c	20	1.211	4
01:00	17:00	35s	30s 67c	20	1.047	3
02:00	18:00	27s 25c	24s 75c	21	0.985	4
03:00	19:00	29s 8c	25s	22	1.142	4
04:00	20:00	37s 33c	28s	21	1.608	3
05:00	21:00	31s 83c	23s 67c	22	1.204	3
06:00	22:00	30s 75c	20s 75c	25	1.331	4
07:00	23:00	31s	30s 50c	24	0.893	2
08:00	00:00	12s	11s	37	0.826	1
09:00	01:00	31s	30s 50c	25	0.928	2
10:00	02:00	31s	15s 50c	26	0.973	2
11:00	03:00	31s	15s 50c	23	0.996	2
12:00	04:00	10s	10s	1	0.198	1
13:00	05:00	11s	11s	25	0.808	1
14:00	06:00	25s 67c	14s 67c	14	1.058	3
15:00	07:00	12s 84c	12s	16	0.881	2
16:00	08:00	14s 50c	13s	16	0.898	1
17:00	09:00	17s 67c	14s 67c	16	0.858	3
18:00	10:00	18s	14s 33c	16	0.908	3
19:00	11:00	13s 25c	11s 50c	23	0.961	2
20:00	12:00	23s 67c	23s 67c	16	0.811	3
21:00	13:00	41s 22c	18s 67c	17	1.164	3
22:00	14:00	28s 13c	16s 25c	19	1.195	4
23:00	15:00	42s	41s	15	1.115	2

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.normal.alliance.us/9799 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.999	1.031	4
01:00	17:00	0.992	1.055	4
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.119	5
03:00	19:00	0.998	1.158	4
04:00	20:00	0.994	1.182	4
05:00	21:00	1.007	1.211	4
06:00	22:00	1.014	1.255	5
07:00	23:00	0.955	0.998	3
08:00	00:00	0.968	1.133	1
09:00	01:00	0.966	1.140	2
10:00	02:00	0.974	1.077	3
11:00	03:00	0.991	1.040	3
12:00	04:00	1.105	0.795	1
13:00	05:00	0.985	0.943	1
14:00	06:00	1.009	0.896	4
15:00	07:00	1.000	0.848	3
16:00	08:00	1.046	0.809	2
17:00	09:00	0.999	0.833	4
18:00	10:00	0.990	0.847	4
19:00	11:00	1.018	0.869	3
20:00	12:00	0.982	0.936	3
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.947	3
22:00	14:00	1.028	0.908	4
23:00	15:00	0.994	0.970	2

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 Ivycloth Sash?: On Normal Alliance US, Ivycloth Sash is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 Pacific) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 160% 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 Normal Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.