Journal of Forecasting 

About: Journal of Forecasting is an academic journal published by Wiley. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Volatility (finance) & Computer science. It has an ISSN identifier of 0277-6693. Over the lifetime, 1798 publications have been published receiving 56857 citations. The journal is also known as: Forecasting.

The accuracy of extrapolation (time series) methods: Results of a forecasting competition

Abstract: ln the last few decades matiy methods have become available for forecasting. As always, when alternatives exist, choices need to be made so that an appropriate forecasting method can be selected and used for the specific situation being considered. This paper reports the results of a forecasting competition that provides information to facilitate such choice. Seven experts in each of the 24 methods forecasted up to 1001 series for six up to eighteen time horizons. The results of the competition are presented in this paper whose purpose is to provide empirical evidence about differences found to exist among the various extrapolative (time series) methods used in the competition.

Exponential smoothing: The state of the art

Abstract: This paper is a critical review of exponential smoothing since the original work by Brown and Holt in the 1950s. Exponential smoothing is based on a pragmatic approach to forecasting which is shared in this review. The aim is to develop state-of-the-art guidelines for application of the exponential smoothing methodology. The first part of the paper discusses the class of relatively simple models which rely on the Holt-Winters procedure for seasonal adjustment of the data. Next, we review general exponential smoothing (GES), which uses Fourier functions of time to model seasonality. The research is reviewed according to the following questions. What are the useful properties of these models? What parameters should be used? How should the models be initialized? After the review of model-building, we turn to problems in the maintenance of forecasting systems based on exponential smoothing. Topics in the maintenance area include the use of quality control models to detect bias in the forecast errors, adaptive parameters to improve the response to structural changes in the time series, and two-stage forecasting, whereby we use a model of the errors or some other model of the data to improve our initial forecasts. Some of the major conclusions: the parameter ranges and starting values typically used in practice are arbitrary and may detract from accuracy. The empirical evidence favours Holt's model for trends over that of Brown. A linear trend should be damped at long horizons. The empirical evidence favours the Holt-Winters approach to seasonal data over GES. It is difficult to justify GES in standard form–the equivalent ARIMA model is simpler and more efficient. The cumulative sum of the errors appears to be the most practical forecast monitoring device. There is no evidence that adaptive parameters improve forecast accuracy. In fact, the reverse may be true.

Combination forecasts of output growth in a seven-country data set

Abstract: This paper uses forecast combination methods to forecast output growth in a seven-country quarterly economic data set covering 1959‐1999, with up to 73 predictors per country. Although the forecasts based on individual predictors are unstable over time and across countries, and on average perform worse than an autoregressive benchmark, the combination forecasts often improve upon autoregressive forecasts. Despite the unstable performance of the constituent forecasts, the most successful combination forecasts, like the mean, are the least sensitive to the recent performance of the individual forecasts. While consistent with other evidence on the success of simple combination forecasts, this finding is difficult to explain using the theory of combination forecasting in a stationary environment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Improved methods of combining forecasts

Abstract: It is well known that a linear combination of forecasts can outperform individual forecasts. The common practice, however, is to obtain a weighted average of forecasts, with the weights adding up to unity. This paper considers three alternative approaches to obtaining linear combinations. It is shown that the best method is to add a constant term and not to constrain the weights to add to unity. These methods are tested with data on forecasts of quarterly hog prices, both within and out of sample. It is demonstrated that the optimum method proposed here is superior to the common practice of letting the weights add up to one.

Outliers, Level Shifts, and Variance Changes in Time Series

Abstract: Outliers, level shifts, and variance changes are commonplace in applied time series analysis. However, their existence is often ignored and their impact is overlooked, for the lack of simple and useful methods to detect and handle those extraordinary events. The problem of detecting outliers, level shifts, and variance changes in a univariate time series is considered. The methods employed are extremely simple yet useful. Only the least squares techniques and residual variance ratios are used. The effectiveness of these simple methods is demonstrated by analysing three real data sets.