Rule-based forecasting vs. damped-trend exponential smoothing

This paper evaluates the ex ante performance of rule-based time series forecasting systems proposed in earlier research. The author shows that comparable performance can be obtained with a simpler alternative, a damped-trend version of exponential smoothing fitted to minimize the Mean-Absolute-Deviation (MAD) criterion. The results suggest that the performance of rule-based systems would be improved through this alternative and that time series forecasters should consider MAD fits in model development.