Time series forecasting is a statistical modelling discipline that focuses solely on the historical behavior of only one metric. In other words, it is not concerned with predicting the value of one metric, say GDP, by assessing the value of another metric, say interest rates. Throughout, we loosely use the terms metric, measure, instrument, etc……
Many industries collect and maintain data. You might think of the shipping industry where large SQL databases are kept to log product inventory and track the number of items shipped monthly or, perhaps weekly. Despite its bankruptcy, Circuit City comes to mind with its thousands of product lines being shelved every week. Other warehouses of…