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 Horde 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 Horde EU, Fortified Chain is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 121% after the 5 percent cut.

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

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 0.824 · typical 45s 10c

Best hours to sell

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 CET · index 1.232 · typical 62s 63c

Spread after the 5% cut

+121%

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

Fortified Chainby hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	43s 75c	22s 75c	17	0.882	4
01:00	02:00	45s 75c	22s 50c	20	0.925	4
02:00	03:00	44s 83c	18s 33c	25	0.994	3
03:00	04:00	43s	19s	19	0.940	3
04:00	05:00	53s 83c	20s	12	0.987	3
05:00	06:00	39s 50c	22s 50c	15	0.924	2
06:00	07:00	55s 17c	20s 67c	14	1.120	3
07:00	08:00	51s 98c	19s 75c	13	1.040	4
08:00	09:00	55s 63c	25s 25c	15	1.137	4
09:00	10:00	64s 36c	22s	13	1.308	4
10:00	11:00	67s 90c	37s 60c	11	1.253	5
11:00	12:00	37s	24s 25c	16	0.792	4
12:00	13:00	42s 40c	23s 75c	16	0.858	4
13:00	14:00	58s 81c	24s 25c	17	1.172	4
14:00	15:00	51s 93c	28s 75c	15	1.028	4
15:00	16:00	45s	20s 33c	17	0.908	3
16:00	17:00	47s 90c	20s	15	0.939	4
17:00	18:00	52s	21s 33c	16	1.063	3
18:00	19:00	54s 67c	29s 33c	13	1.040	3
19:00	20:00	61s 55c	39s 33c	11	1.149	3
20:00	21:00	56s 56c	36s	10	1.068	4
21:00	22:00	51s 14c	33s 50c	14	0.837	2
22:00	23:00	47s 17c	24s 33c	15	0.889	3
23:00	00:00	37s	23s	16	0.746	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.horde.eu/9818 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	1.006	1.113	4
01:00	02:00	0.966	1.116	4
02:00	03:00	0.957	1.123	3
03:00	04:00	1.021	0.832	3
04:00	05:00	1.111	0.841	4
05:00	06:00	1.019	0.827	2
06:00	07:00	1.028	0.850	3
07:00	08:00	1.019	0.744	4
08:00	09:00	1.005	0.827	5
09:00	10:00	1.042	0.813	5
10:00	11:00	1.013	0.892	5
11:00	12:00	1.011	0.941	5
12:00	13:00	1.007	0.999	5
13:00	14:00	1.004	1.079	5
14:00	15:00	0.979	1.164	5
15:00	16:00	0.960	1.163	5
16:00	17:00	1.002	1.227	5
17:00	18:00	0.947	1.065	4
18:00	19:00	0.933	1.108	3
19:00	20:00	0.930	1.125	3
20:00	21:00	1.017	1.033	4
21:00	22:00	0.992	0.942	3
22:00	23:00	1.028	1.111	3
23:00	00:00	1.002	1.066	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 Fortified Chain?: On PvP Horde EU, Fortified Chain is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 121% 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 Horde EU through the night fills the gaps.