Financial Time Series Data Mining

Abstract

Movement of stocks in the financial market is a typical example of financial time series data. It is generally believed that past performance of a stock can indicate its future trend and so stock trend analysis is a popular activity in the financial community. In this chapter, we will explore the unique characteristics of financial time series data mining. Financial time series analysis came into being recently. Though the world’s first stock exchange was established in the 18th century, stock trend analysis began only in the late 20th century. According to Tay et al. (2003) analysis of financial time series has been formally addressed only since 1980s. It is believed that financial time series data can speak for itself. By analyzing the data, one can understand the volatility, seasonal effects, liquidity, and price response and hence predict the movement of a stock. For example, the continuous downward movement of the S&P index during a short period of time allows investors to anticipate that majority of stocks will go down in immediate future. On the other hand, a sharp increase in interest rate makes investors speculate that a decrease in overall bond price will occur. Such conclusions can only be drawn after a detailed analysis of the historic stock data. There are many charts and figures related to stock index movements, change of exchange rates, and variations of bond prices, which can be encountered everyday. An example of such a financial time series data is shown in Figure 1. It is generally believed that through data analysis, analysts can exploit the temporal dependencies both in the deterministic (regression) and the stochastic (error) components of a model and can come up with better prediction models for future stock prices (Congdon, 2003).