Last time we saw how to do automated model selection using the ES function from the smooth package. Now I want to show how to produce combined forecasts from ETS. Why bother? There is a vast body of literature on forecast combinations (read this great review). The main idea is that you should not put […]
As some of you have heard, the smooth package is now on PyPI. So, I’ve decided to write a series of posts showcasing how some of its functions work. We start with the basics, ETS. ETS stands for the “Error-Trend-Seasonal” model or ExponenTial Smoothing. It is a statistical model that relies on time series decomposition […]
Here is another piece of news I have been hoping to deliver for quite some time now (since January 2026 actually). We have finally created the first release of the smooth package for Python and it is available on PyPI! Anyone interested? Read more! On this page: Why does “smooth” exist? A bit of history […]
Great news, everyone! smooth package for R version 4.4.0 is now on CRAN. Why is this a great news? Let me explain! On this page: What’s new? Evaluation Setup Results What’s next? Here is what’s new since 4.3.0: First, I have worked on tuning the initialisation in adam() in case of backcasting, and improved the […]
This year, I couldn’t attend the International Symposium on Forecasting (organised by the International Institute of Forecasters), which I usually do, so instead I went to Gran Canaria for the International Conference on Time Series and Forecasting (aka ITISE). The location was fantastic, and I enjoyed several talks. I was also glad to catch up […]
Good news! The smooth package v4.3.0 is now on CRAN. And there are several things worth mentioning, so I have written this post. New default initialisation mechanism Since the beginning of the package, the smooth functions supported three ways for initialising the state vector (the vector that includes level, trend, seasonal indices): optimisation, backcasting and […]
Here is one thing you have probably not heard of: a workshop on Open Source Forecasting software, held in Beijing on 26th – 27th June 2025. This was a closed event, with speakers attending by invitation only. It focused on recent advancements and potential avenues in open-source forecasting software. But why am I writing about […]
I have been asked recently by a colleague of mine how to extract the variance from a model estimated using adam() function from the smooth package in R. The problem was that that person started reading the source code of the forecast.adam() and got lost between the lines (this happens to me as well sometimes). […]
Back in 2015, when I was working on my paper on Complex Exponential Smoothing, I conducted a simple simulation experiment to check how ARIMA and ETS select components/orders in time series. And I found something interesting… One of the important steps in forecasting with statistical models is identifying the existing structure. In the case of […]
“My amazing forecasting method has a lower MASE than any other method!” You’ve probably seen claims like this on social media or in papers. But have you ever thought about what it really means? Many forecasting experiments come to applying several approaches to a dataset, calculating error measures for each method per time series and […]