IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/msh/ebswps/2018-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Meta-learning how to forecast time series

Author

Listed:
  • Thiyanga S Talagala
  • Rob J Hyndman
  • George Athanasopoulos

Abstract

A crucial task in time series forecasting is the identification of the most suitable forecasting method. We present a general framework for forecast-model selection using meta-learning. A random forest is used to identify the best forecasting method using only time series features. The framework is evaluated using time series from the M1 and M3 competitions and is shown to yield accurate forecasts comparable to several benchmarks and other commonly used automated approaches of time series forecasting. A key advantage of our proposed framework is that the time-consuming process of building a classifier is handled in advance of the forecasting task at hand.

Suggested Citation

  • Thiyanga S Talagala & Rob J Hyndman & George Athanasopoulos, 2018. "Meta-learning how to forecast time series," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 6/18, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
  • Handle: RePEc:msh:ebswps:2018-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.monash.edu/business/ebs/research/publications/ebs/wp06-2018.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hyndman, Rob J. & Koehler, Anne B. & Snyder, Ralph D. & Grose, Simone, 2002. "A state space framework for automatic forecasting using exponential smoothing methods," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 439-454.
    2. Shah, Chandra, 1997. "Model selection in univariate time series forecasting using discriminant analysis," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 489-500, December.
    3. Kang, Yanfei & Hyndman, Rob J. & Smith-Miles, Kate, 2017. "Visualising forecasting algorithm performance using time series instance spaces," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 345-358.
    4. Hyndman, Rob J. & Khandakar, Yeasmin, 2008. "Automatic Time Series Forecasting: The forecast Package for R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 27(i03).
    5. Fred Collopy & J. Scott Armstrong, 1992. "Rule-Based Forecasting: Development and Validation of an Expert Systems Approach to Combining Time Series Extrapolations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(10), pages 1394-1414, October.
    6. Timo Teräsvirta & Chien‐Fu Lin & Clive W. J. Granger, 1993. "Power Of The Neural Network Linearity Test," Journal of Time Series Analysis, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 209-220, March.
    7. Hyndman, Rob J. & Koehler, Anne B., 2006. "Another look at measures of forecast accuracy," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 679-688.
    8. Adya, Monica & Collopy, Fred & Armstrong, J. Scott & Kennedy, Miles, 2001. "Automatic identification of time series features for rule-based forecasting," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 143-157.
    9. Makridakis, Spyros & Hibon, Michele, 2000. "The M3-Competition: results, conclusions and implications," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 451-476.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Allison Koenecke & Amita Gajewar, 2019. "Curriculum Learning in Deep Neural Networks for Financial Forecasting," Papers 1904.12887, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2019.
    2. Canaydin, Ada & Fu, Chun & Balint, Attila & Khalil, Mohamad & Miller, Clayton & Kazmi, Hussain, 2024. "Interpretable domain-informed and domain-agnostic features for supervised and unsupervised learning on building energy demand data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 360(C).
    3. Ma, Shaohui & Fildes, Robert, 2021. "Retail sales forecasting with meta-learning," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(1), pages 111-128.
    4. Petropoulos, Fotios & Apiletti, Daniele & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Babai, Mohamed Zied & Barrow, Devon K. & Ben Taieb, Souhaib & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bessa, Ricardo J. & Bijak, Jakub & Boylan, Joh, 2022. "Forecasting: theory and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 705-871.
      • Fotios Petropoulos & Daniele Apiletti & Vassilios Assimakopoulos & Mohamed Zied Babai & Devon K. Barrow & Souhaib Ben Taieb & Christoph Bergmeir & Ricardo J. Bessa & Jakub Bijak & John E. Boylan & Jet, 2020. "Forecasting: theory and practice," Papers 2012.03854, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    5. Li, Yiyan & Zhang, Si & Hu, Rongxing & Lu, Ning, 2021. "A meta-learning based distribution system load forecasting model selection framework," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    6. Montero-Manso, Pablo & Athanasopoulos, George & Hyndman, Rob J. & Talagala, Thiyanga S., 2020. "FFORMA: Feature-based forecast model averaging," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 86-92.
    7. Kang, Yanfei & Cao, Wei & Petropoulos, Fotios & Li, Feng, 2022. "Forecast with forecasts: Diversity matters," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(1), pages 180-190.
    8. Thiyanga S. Talagala & Feng Li & Yanfei Kang, 2019. "Feature-based Forecast-Model Performance Prediction," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 21/19, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    9. Yanfei Kang & Rob J Hyndman & Feng Li, 2018. "Efficient generation of time series with diverse and controllable characteristics," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 15/18, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    10. Wang, Xiaoqian & Hyndman, Rob J. & Li, Feng & Kang, Yanfei, 2023. "Forecast combinations: An over 50-year review," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 1518-1547.
    11. Semenoglou, Artemios-Anargyros & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Makridakis, Spyros & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2021. "Investigating the accuracy of cross-learning time series forecasting methods," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1072-1084.
    12. Fotios Petropoulos & Enno Siemsen, 2023. "Forecast Selection and Representativeness," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(5), pages 2672-2690, May.
    13. Alexander Dokumentov & Rob J. Hyndman, 2022. "STR: Seasonal-Trend Decomposition Using Regression," INFORMS Joural on Data Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(1), pages 50-62, April.
    14. Petropoulos, Fotios & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Panagiotelis, Anastasios, 2023. "Model combinations through revised base rates," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1477-1492.
    15. Talagala, Thiyanga S. & Li, Feng & Kang, Yanfei, 2022. "FFORMPP: Feature-based forecast model performance prediction," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 920-943.
    16. Qi, Lingzhi & Li, Xixi & Wang, Qiang & Jia, Suling, 2023. "fETSmcs: Feature-based ETS model component selection," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1303-1317.
    17. Bennett, Donyetta & Mekelburg, Erik & Strauss, Jack & Williams, T.H., 2024. "Unlocking the black box of sentiment and cryptocurrency: What, which, why, when and how?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    18. Shaub, David, 2020. "Fast and accurate yearly time series forecasting with forecast combinations," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 116-120.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kang, Yanfei & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Petropoulos, Fotios & Athiniotis, Nikolaos & Li, Feng & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2021. "Déjà vu: A data-centric forecasting approach through time series cross-similarity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 719-731.
    2. Fotios Petropoulos & Enno Siemsen, 2023. "Forecast Selection and Representativeness," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(5), pages 2672-2690, May.
    3. Petropoulos, Fotios & Makridakis, Spyros & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Nikolopoulos, Konstantinos, 2014. "‘Horses for Courses’ in demand forecasting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(1), pages 152-163.
    4. Fildes, Robert & Petropoulos, Fotios, 2015. "Simple versus complex selection rules for forecasting many time series," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1692-1701.
    5. Fildes, Robert & Petropoulos, Fotios, 2013. "An evaluation of simple forecasting model selection rules," MPRA Paper 51772, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Talagala, Thiyanga S. & Li, Feng & Kang, Yanfei, 2022. "FFORMPP: Feature-based forecast model performance prediction," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 920-943.
    7. Thiyanga S. Talagala & Feng Li & Yanfei Kang, 2019. "Feature-based Forecast-Model Performance Prediction," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 21/19, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    8. Makridakis, Spyros & Hyndman, Rob J. & Petropoulos, Fotios, 2020. "Forecasting in social settings: The state of the art," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 15-28.
    9. Semenoglou, Artemios-Anargyros & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Makridakis, Spyros & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2021. "Investigating the accuracy of cross-learning time series forecasting methods," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1072-1084.
    10. Graff, Mario & Peña, Rafael & Medina, Aurelio & Escalante, Hugo Jair, 2014. "Wind speed forecasting using a portfolio of forecasters," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 550-559.
    11. Han, Weiwei & Wang, Xun & Petropoulos, Fotios & Wang, Jing, 2019. "Brain imaging and forecasting: Insights from judgmental model selection," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-9.
    12. Spiliotis, Evangelos & Nikolopoulos, Konstantinos & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2019. "Tales from tails: On the empirical distributions of forecasting errors and their implication to risk," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 687-698.
    13. Spiliotis, Evangelos & Kouloumos, Andreas & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Makridakis, Spyros, 2020. "Are forecasting competitions data representative of the reality?," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 37-53.
    14. Gardner, Everette Jr., 2006. "Exponential smoothing: The state of the art--Part II," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 637-666.
    15. Kourentzes, Nikolaos & Petropoulos, Fotios & Trapero, Juan R., 2014. "Improving forecasting by estimating time series structural components across multiple frequencies," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 291-302.
    16. Alysha M De Livera, 2010. "Automatic forecasting with a modified exponential smoothing state space framework," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 10/10, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    17. Meira, Erick & Cyrino Oliveira, Fernando Luiz & de Menezes, Lilian M., 2022. "Forecasting natural gas consumption using Bagging and modified regularization techniques," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    18. Huber, Jakob & Stuckenschmidt, Heiner, 2020. "Daily retail demand forecasting using machine learning with emphasis on calendric special days," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1420-1438.
    19. Spiliotis, Evangelos & Petropoulos, Fotios, 2024. "On the update frequency of univariate forecasting models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 314(1), pages 111-121.
    20. Evangelos Spiliotis & Fotios Petropoulos & Vassilios Assimakopoulos, 2023. "On the Disagreement of Forecasting Model Selection Criteria," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-12, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    FFORMS (Feature-based FORecast-model Selection); time series features; random forest; algorithm selection problem; classsification.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C10 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - General
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:msh:ebswps:2018-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Professor Xibin Zhang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dxmonau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.