There are several reasons why it is desirable to study a time series.
In general, we can say that, the study of a time series has as main objectives:
Describe
Predict
Explain
Control
One of the most important reasons for studying time series is for the purpose of making forecasts about the analyzed time series.
The reason that forecasting is so important is that prediction of future events is critical input into many types of planning and decision-making processes, with application to areas such Marketing, Finance Risk Management, Economics, Industrial Process Control, Demography, and so forth.
Despite the wide range of problem situations that require forecasts, there are only two broad types of forecasting techniques. These are Qualitative methods and Quantitative methods.
Qualitative forecasting techniques are often subjective in nature and require judgment on the part of experts.
Quantitative forecasting techniques make formal use of historical data and a forecasting model. The model formally summarizes patterns in the data and expresses a statistical relationship between previous (Tn-1), and current values (Tn), of the variable.
In other words, the forecasting model is used to extrapolate past and current behavior into the future. That's what we'll be learning in this course.
Regardless of your objective, this course is oriented to provide you with the basic foundations and knowledge, as well as a practical application, in the study of time series.
Students will find valuable resources, in addition to the video lessons, it has a large number of laboratories, which will allow you to apply in a practical way the concepts described in each lecture.
The labs are written in two of the most important languages in data science. These are python and r.