Single Exponential Smoothing Algorithm: 3.1 Notation

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Chapter 3

Single Exponential Smoothing Algorithm


3.1 Notation
From now on in the course we use the following notation:
y
1
, y
2
, . . . , y
n
are the observed values of the time series
y
n
is the last value of the series tobe observedi.e. we are currently at time n (months, quarters, years...)
Forecasts for the value of the series at future times n+1, n+2, . . ., using a model tted to y
1
, . . . , y
n
, are
denoted F
n+1
, F
n+2
, . . .. The k-step ahead forecast from time n would be F
n+k
.
Fitted values using the model are F
1
, . . . , F
n
.
The residuals or errors are y
1
F
1
, . . . , y
n
F
n
.
3.1.1 Single Exponential Smoothing
There is no obvious statistical model that we try to t (by regression or another tting technique). Exponen-
tial Smoothing is simply an algorithm for creating forecasts iteratively on the basis of how well one did with
previous forecasts.
Suppose we make a forecast F
t
for the value of y
t
(which is not yet observed).
Now we observe y
t
and wish to make a forecast F
t +1
. We do this by taking our old forecast F
t
and
adjusting it using the error in forecasting y
t
as follows:
F
t +1
=F
t
+(y
t
F
t
),
where is between 0 and 1.
The nearer is to 1 then the larger the adjustment.
We cannot forecast the rst term in the series (since F
1
=F
0
+(y
0
F
0
) and there is no F
0
or y
0
). By
convention, we x F
1
= y
1
and only forecast y
2
onwards.
16
CHAPTER 3. SINGLE EXPONENTIAL SMOOTHING ALGORITHM
'
&
$
%
Init: F
1
= y
1
and choose 0 <<1
Forecast:

F
t +1
=F
t
+ (y
t
F
t
)
Until no more observation are available then
F
n+k
=F
n+1
, k 1
Table 3.1: Simple Exponential Smoothing (SES) Algorithm.
3.2 What does Exponential Smoothing Really Do?
If we recursively apply the smoothing equation to F
t +1
, we get:
F
t +1
= F
t
+ (y
t
F
t
)
= [F
t 1
+ (y
t 1
F
t 1
)] + (y
t
[F
t 1
+ (y
t 1
F
t 1
)])
= y
t
+ (1) y
t 1
+(1)
2
F
t 1
,
Now F
t +1
is in terms of y
t
, y
t 1
and F
t 1
. We can repeat this, replacing F
t 1
by F
t 2
+(y
t 2
F
t 2
), to get
F
t +1
is in terms of y
t
, y
t 1
, y
t 2
and F
t 2
. Doing this replacement another t 3 times, we end up with F
t +1
in terms of y
1
, . . . , y
t
and F
1
, and the following equation for F
t +1
:
F
t +1
= y
t
+ (1) y
t 1
+ (1)
2
y
t 2
+ + (1)
t 1
y
1
+(1)
t
F
1
(3.1)
So exponential smoothing forecasts are a weighted sum of all the previous observations.
3.3 Exercises
(1) What is F
t +1
when =0? What happens as increases to 1? What range of values must F
t +1
lie in?
(2) Here is a short time series. Calculate the exponentially smoothed series and make a forecast for the
next value in the sequence, using =0.5 and =0.1:
t y
t
F
t
(for =0.5) error F
t
(for =0.1) error
1 3 3 0 3 0
2 4
3 2
4
(3) Can you make k-step ahead forecasts using exponential smoothing?
(4) Which observation is given the biggest weight in the formula (3.1) for F
t +1
. Which is given the small-
est? Is this sensible?
17 Rozenn Dahyot 2011

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