Welcome to our moving average calculator designed to smooth out data fluctuations and identify underlying trends in time-series data.
A retail store tracking its daily sales. Instead of focusing on individual daily fluctuations, the store manager uses a moving average calculator to understand weekly trends:
Daily Sales ($): 1200, 980, 1450, 1100, 890, 1300, 1180
7-day Moving Average = $1,157.14Moving Average Calculator
| Year | Value | 3-Year MA | 5-Year MA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 120 | 113.33 | 110.00 |
| 2023 | 125 | 120.00 | 115.00 |
| 2024 | 130 | 125.00 | 119.00 |
| 2025 | 135 | 130.00 | 123.00 |
| 2026 | 140 | 135.00 | 127.00 |
| 2027 | 150 | 141.67 | 132.00 |
| 2028 | 160 | 148.33 | 137.00 |
| 2029 | 170 | 155.00 | 143.00 |
Moving Average Calculation Formula
The moving average formula can be expressed mathematically as:
MA = (P₁ + P₂ + P₃ + ... + Pₙ) ÷ nWhere:
- MA = Moving Average
- P = Individual values in the period
- n = Number of periods
Let’s examine a 5-day moving average calculation:
Day 1: 10
Day 2: 12
Day 3: 15
Day 4: 11
Day 5: 14
5-day MA = (10 + 12 + 15 + 11 + 14) ÷ 5 = 12.4How to Calculate Moving Average?
Calculating a moving average involves three key steps:
- Data Collection: Gather sequential data points over your desired time period.
- Period Selection: Determine the number of periods for averaging.
- Sequential Calculation: Calculate averages by moving forward one period at a time.
Let’s do a practical example using monthly revenue data:
Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Revenue ($): 5000 5500 4800 6000 5800 6200
# First 3-month MA (Jan-Mar)
MA1 = (5000 + 5500 + 4800) ÷ 3 = 5100
# Second 3-month MA (Feb-Apr)
MA2 = (5500 + 4800 + 6000) ÷ 3 = 5433.33
# Third 3-month MA (Mar-May)
MA3 = (4800 + 6000 + 5800) ÷ 3 = 5533.33Moving Average Method Examples
Stock Market Analysis
Stock Prices ($): 45.50, 46.20, 45.80, 46.50, 47.00
5-day MA = $46.20Temperature Monitoring
Daily Temps (°C): 22, 24, 23, 25, 24, 26, 25
Weekly MA = 24.14°CSales Performance
Quarterly Sales ($K): 120, 135, 115, 140
Annual MA = $127.5KWhat is Moving Average?
A Moving Average is a calculation used to analyze data points by creating a series of averages of different subsets of the full dataset.
Month: Jan Feb Mar Apr May
Visits: 1000, 1200, 950, 1100, 1300
3-month MA: - 1050, 1083.33, 1116.67, 1116.67What is a 3 Yearly Moving Average?
A 3 Yearly Moving Average specifically calculates averages over three-year periods, ideal for long-term trend analysis.
This method is particularly useful for:
- Economic indicators.
- Population growth studies.
- Climate change analysis.
Example of population growth in a city:
Year: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Pop.: 50000, 51200, 52500, 54000, 55800
3-year MAs:
2018-2020: 51,233
2019-2021: 52,567
2020-2022: 54,100References
Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) – Economic Research
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