让长期预测更稳定,避免反复变动影响决策
Stabilizing distribution-free probabilistic forecasts

- 用神经网络参数化样条函数,联合优化预测精度与稳定性
- 实测显示稳定性显著提升,精度损失小,可定向稳定分布特定区域
- 适合对预测一致性要求高的场景,如库存管理、财务规划
多步预测会随新数据更新,虽能提升短期预测质量,但导致同一目标期的预测结果波动大,引发计划频繁调整并削弱系统可信度。本文将预测稳定性与质量一同纳入无分布假设的时间序列概率预测模型训练中,实现二者权衡。提出一种基于神经网络参数化样条的条件分位数函数生成方法,可直接惩罚因更新带来的预测差异。该方法支持对分布不同部分(如中位数区或尾部)赋予不同稳定权重,聚焦下游任务需求(如库存管理关注上尾)。在两个具有不同统计特性的数据集上评估,结果表明该方法能有效降低预测不稳定,且精度损失小,可精准控制稳定重点。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Multi-step-ahead forecasts are often updated as new observations become available, since shorter forecast horizons typically improve forecast quality. However, such improvements come at the cost of forecast instability, i.e., variability in forecasts for the same target period. This instability can trigger costly changes to plans formulated based on the forecasts and may erode trust in the forecasting system. In this work, we integrate forecast stability alongside forecast quality into the training of distribution-free probabilistic time-series forecasting models, allowing us to control this trade-off. We propose a method for generating stabilized forecasted conditional quantile functions using regression splines parameterized by a neural network. This approach enables joint optimization of quality and stability, as it allows us to directly penalize dissimilarities arising from forecast updates. Furthermore, it allows assigning varying importance to stabilizing different parts of the forecast distributions (e.g., central parts vs. tails) to focus on the parts most relevant for the intended downstream use (e.g., the upper tail for inventory management). We empirically evaluate the proposed method on two datasets with different statistical properties and show that it can effectively reduce forecast instability without a substantial loss in forecast quality, and that it can target stabilization effort toward specific parts of the forecast distributions.
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