Smoothing Techniques Summary

Smoothing Techniques

Summary

to clarify the long term trend, a technique called smoothing can be used where groups of values are averaged.

when the data has been smoothed and trends analysed, each value can be looked at for seasonal effects. this is to see if the values are significantly different from what might be expected and to help make predictions.

Key Skills
  • be able to smooth time series data using moving averages with an odd or an even number of terms
  • be able to estimate seasonal effects from data
  • be able to seasonally adjust data in a time series and interpret results
  • be able to predict or forecast future values in a time series

Vocabulary

time series, trend, moving mean, moving median, smoothing, seasonal variation, cyclical variation