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, Ivy Orb is cheapest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 CET) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 95% 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

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 CET · index 0.897 · typical 44s 11c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 1.180 · typical 79s 17c

Spread after the 5% cut

+95%

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 0 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Ivy Orbby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
01:00	02:00	83s 50c	51s 50c	24	1.238	2
02:00	03:00	79s 50c	51s 50c	23	1.166	2
03:00	04:00	74s 50c	51s 50c	22	1.137	2
04:00	05:00	27s	26s	21	0.918	2
05:00	06:00	1g 10s	75s	16	1.382	1
06:00	07:00	44s 58c	42s 33c	15	0.985	3
07:00	08:00	43s 33c	34s	14	0.986	3
08:00	09:00	42s 60c	34s	15	0.975	3
09:00	10:00	42s 50c	33s 67c	16	0.990	3
10:00	11:00	34s 33c	33s 67c	15	0.888	3
11:00	12:00	39s	38s 50c	18	0.870	2
12:00	13:00	28s	26s	18	0.998	1
13:00	14:00	55s 33c	52s	16	0.843	3
14:00	15:00	38s 50c	32s 50c	24	0.905	2
15:00	16:00	38s 50c	31s	25	0.942	2
16:00	17:00	38s 38c	32s	28	0.977	2
17:00	18:00	38s 17c	32s	28	0.971	2
18:00	19:00	35s 67c	31s 50c	27	0.957	2
19:00	20:00	34s 34c	31s 50c	21	0.952	2
20:00	21:00	32s 15c	31s 50c	27	0.924	2
21:00	22:00	38s 20c	36s	27	0.925	1
22:00	23:00	64s 33c	60s 67c	25	1.090	3
23:00	00:00	31s 67c	26s	25	0.980	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.pvp.alliance.eu/9800 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 Ivy Orb?: On PvP Alliance EU, Ivy Orb is cheapest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 CET) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 95% 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.