In statistics and signal processing, a time series is a sequence of data points, measured typically at successive times, spaced apart at uniform time intervals. Time series analysis is a generic term for methods that attempt to understand such time series. Time series analysis usually tries either to understand the underlying theory of the data points (where did they come from? what generated them?), or to make forecasts (predictions). Time series prediction is the use of a model to predict future events based on known past events: to predict future data points before they are measured. The standard example is the opening price of a share or stock based on its past performance.
See also: linear prediction
