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 Horde 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 Horde US, Superior Gloves is cheapest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 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 154% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Horde US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/horde/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

00:00 to 03:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 Pacific · index 0.847 · typical 30s 69c

Best hours to sell

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 1.196 · typical 39s 63c

Spread after the 5% cut

+154%

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 Glovesby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	32s 33c	20s	13	0.895	3
01:00	17:00	26s 75c	12s	16	0.756	2
02:00	18:00	33s	12s 50c	19	0.891	2
03:00	19:00	44s	12s	18	1.040	1
04:00	20:00	45s	12s 50c	19	1.310	2
05:00	21:00	39s 40c	13s 67c	18	1.149	3
06:00	22:00	34s 50c	23s 50c	15	1.129	2
07:00	23:00	29s	12s 50c	22	0.749	2
08:00	00:00	32s 50c	18s	18	0.886	3
09:00	01:00	37s	20s 50c	15	0.973	2
10:00	02:00	37s	19s 50c	13	0.995	2
11:00	03:00	42s	38s 50c	10	1.098	2
12:00	04:00	37s 50c	18s	13	1.171	2
13:00	05:00	30s	20s	15	1.027	1
14:00	06:00	36s 67c	20s 67c	14	1.005	3
15:00	07:00	22s 33c	12s	17	0.596	1
16:00	08:00	30s	19s	19	1.032	1
17:00	09:00	34s	18s	15	1.154	1
18:00	10:00	34s 75c	15s	18	1.042	2
19:00	11:00	30s 17c	15s	22	0.894	2
20:00	12:00	44s	21s	11	1.200	3
21:00	13:00	39s	20s 33c	14	1.020	3
22:00	14:00	38s 33c	20s 33c	12	1.057	3
23:00	15:00	34s	13s	17	0.930	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.horde.us/9806 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.991	1.028	4
01:00	17:00	1.004	1.005	3
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.030	4
03:00	19:00	1.006	1.060	2
04:00	20:00	0.986	1.128	4
05:00	21:00	0.988	1.185	4
06:00	22:00	0.989	1.081	3
07:00	23:00	0.981	1.300	3
08:00	00:00	0.974	1.290	3
09:00	01:00	1.212	1.051	3
10:00	02:00	1.002	1.214	2
11:00	03:00	1.044	0.967	3
12:00	04:00	0.989	0.991	3
13:00	05:00	1.026	0.877	2
14:00	06:00	0.983	0.884	4
15:00	07:00	0.957	0.855	2
16:00	08:00	0.992	0.839	1
17:00	09:00	0.978	0.854	1
18:00	10:00	0.953	0.903	3
19:00	11:00	0.983	0.798	4
20:00	12:00	1.004	0.738	4
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.935	3
22:00	14:00	0.988	0.967	3
23:00	15:00	0.982	1.019	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 Superior Gloves?: On Normal Horde US, Superior Gloves is cheapest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 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 154% 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 Horde US through the night fills the gaps.