What does stationarity mean in statistics?

What does stationarity mean in statistics?

In t he most intuitive sense, stationarity means that the statistical properties of a process generating a time series do not change over time . It does not mean that the series does not change over time, just that the way it changes does not itself change over time.

Why is stationarity important in forecasting?

Stationarity is an important concept in the field of time series analysis with tremendous influence on how the data is perceived and predicted. The best indication of this is when the dataset of past instances is stationary. For data to be stationary, the statistical properties of a system do not change over time.

What is stationary and nonstationary time series?

A stationary time series has statistical properties or moments (e.g., mean and variance) that do not vary in time. Stationarity, then, is the status of a stationary time series. Conversely, nonstationarity is the status of a time series whose statistical properties are changing through time.

What is the importance of stationarity?

Stationarity means that the statistical properties of a time series (or rather the process generating it) do not change over time. Stationarity is important because many useful analytical tools and statistical tests and models rely on it.

How do you check for stationarity?

Probably the simplest way to check for stationarity is to split your total timeseries into 2, 4, or 10 (say N) sections (the more the better), and compute the mean and variance within each section. If there is an obvious trend in either the mean or variance over the N sections, then your series is not stationary.

How do you test stationarity?

The most basic methods for stationarity detection rely on plotting the data, and visually checking for trend and seasonal components. Trying to determine whether a time series was generated by a stationary process just by looking at its plot is a dubious task.

What is strict stationarity?

In mathematics and statistics, a stationary process (or a strict/strictly stationary process or strong/strongly stationary process) is a stochastic process whose unconditional joint probability distribution does not change when shifted in time.

What is stationarity in time series analysis?

Stationarity is used as a tool in time series analysis, where the raw data is often transformed to become stationary; for example, economic data are often seasonal and/or dependent on a non-stationary price level.

What is wide sense stationary?

A stationary process is a stochastic process whose statistical properties do not change with time. For a strict-sense stationary process, this means that its joint probability distribution is constant; for a wide-sense stationary process, this means that its 1st and 2nd moments are constant.

What is the definition of stationary?

Definition of stationary. 1 : fixed in a station, course, or mode : immobile. 2 : unchanging in condition a stationary population.

What is a stationary series?

A stationary series is one in which the properties – mean, variance and covariance, do not vary with time. Let us understand this using an intuitive example. Consider the three plots shown below: In the first plot, we can clearly see that the mean varies (increases) with time which results in an upward trend.