Forecasting

Hello to all,

Does anyone know how I can forecast the 4th quarter amount for the data below? I tried using the linear trend on my chart and selected 3 future periods under the trend line options. This showed me a future trend but it did not display what the totals will be. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you


Q1 - 2500

Q2 - 2350

Q3 - 2475

Q4 - ?

"november678x" <november678x.27lowz_1147279503.7596@excelforum-nospam.com>
wrote in message
news:november678x.27lowz_1147279503.7596@excelforum-nospam.com...
>
> Hello to all,
>
> Does anyone know how I can forecast the 4th quarter amount for the data
> below? I tried using the linear trend on my chart and selected 3 future
> periods under the trend line options. This showed me a future trend but
> it did not display what the totals will be. Any help would be
> appreciated.
>
> Thank you
>
>
> Q1 - 2500
>
> Q2 - 2350
>
> Q3 - 2475
>
> Q4 - ?

Use the LINEST() function, which will calculate the parameters of your
y=mx+c linear fit. Having calculated the parameters, you can then evaluate
the value of y for any x. In your case, for Q4, y comes to 2416.667. [You
can of course plot this, to show it agrees with the trend line that Excel
plotted for you.]
--
David Biddulph

Thank you for the reply. I am looking at the trend line formula on the chart and it says:

Y=-12.5x+2466.7
R2 = 0.0242

To clarify this equation, If i say that the points move down every 12.5, the next value on the line will be 2466.7, and the closer R2 is to 1.0 the more accurate the trendline, am I correct?

"november678x" <november678x.27lzby_1147293003.6097@excelforum-nospam.com>
wrote in message
news:november678x.27lzby_1147293003.6097@excelforum-nospam.com...
>
> Thank you for the reply. I am looking at the trend line formula on the
> chart and it says:
>
> Y=-12.5x+2466.7
> R2 = 0.0242
>
> To clarify this equation, If i say that the points move down every
> 12.5, the next value on the line will be 2466.7, and the closer R2 is
> to 1.0 the more accurate the trendline, am I correct?

2466.7 is the y value for x=0, i.e. the point where the line crosses the y
axis.

For more detail see
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/as...091551033.aspx
--
David Biddulph