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, Superior Cloak is cheapest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 CET) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 258% 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

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 CET · index 0.669 · typical 21s 22c

Best hours to sell

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 CET · index 1.260 · typical 40s 39c

Spread after the 5% cut

+258%

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.

Superior Cloakby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	43s	39s	8	1.403	1
01:00	02:00	37s 27c	18s 67c	26	1.109	3
02:00	03:00	35s	8s 50c	34	1.014	2
03:00	04:00	37s 25c	8s 50c	31	1.089	2
04:00	05:00	38s 50c	8s	34	1.115	2
05:00	06:00	30s 50c	24s	12	0.888	2
06:00	07:00	34s 50c	16s	20	0.986	4
07:00	08:00	35s 6c	16s	18	1.004	4
08:00	09:00	36s 35c	13s 75c	19	1.044	4
09:00	10:00	40s 75c	13s 75c	19	1.176	4
10:00	11:00	28s 50c	13s 20c	16	0.909	5
11:00	12:00	24s 29c	14s 25c	17	0.762	4
12:00	13:00	11s 34c	9s 50c	15	0.451	2
13:00	14:00	29s 33c	13s 33c	26	0.851	3
14:00	15:00	23s	9s 33c	18	0.707	3
15:00	16:00	22s 92c	9s 33c	20	0.698	3
16:00	17:00	26s 31c	9s 75c	22	0.820	4
17:00	18:00	27s 44c	9s 33c	25	0.862	3
18:00	19:00	36s 50c	8s 50c	38	1.105	2
19:00	20:00	37s 27c	20s 33c	21	1.267	3
20:00	21:00	40s 93c	8s 50c	33	1.189	2
21:00	22:00	55s 40c	9s	24	1.255	1
22:00	23:00	33s 72c	8s 67c	30	1.032	3
23:00	00:00	40s 89c	19s 67c	22	1.267	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/9805 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 Superior Cloak?: On PvP Alliance EU, Superior Cloak is cheapest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 CET) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 258% 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.