Finance
Forecast the next number from a trend
=FORECAST.LINEAR(E2,B2:B4,A2:A4)How it works in Excel
- E2 is the period to predict.
- B2:B4 are the known results.
- A2:A4 are their periods.
- It draws a straight line through your data.
- FORECAST.ETS handles seasonal patterns.
- A forecast is a guess, and gets weaker further out.
The idea in general
It carries the past straight-line trend forward.
What I assumed
- The periods are in A2:A4, the results are in B2:B4 and the period to predict is in E2.
Check the result on your own data before relying on it.