The Excel file Closing Stock Prices provides data for four stocks and the Dow Jones Industrials Index over a 1 month period.
a. Develop spreadsheet models for forecasting each of the stock prices using simple 2 period moving average and simple exponential smoothing with a smoothing constant of 0.3.
b. Compare your results to the outputs from Excel’s Data Analysis tools.
c. Using MAD, MSE, and MAPE as guidance, find the best number of moving average periods and best smoothing constant for exponential smoothing.
d. Use XLMiner to find the best number of periods for the moving average forecast and optimal exponential smoothing constant.