es() - Exponential Smoothing

Ivan Svetunkov

2026-09-03

es() is a part of smooth package and is a wrapper for the ADAM function with distribution="dnorm". It implements Exponential Smoothing in the ETS form, selecting the most appropriate model among 30 possible ones.

We will use some of the functions of the greybox package in this vignette for demonstrational purposes.

Let’s load the necessary packages:

require(smooth)
require(greybox)

The simplest call for the es() function is:

ourModel <- es(BJsales, h=12, holdout=TRUE, silent=FALSE)

## Forming the pool of models based on... ANN , AAN , Estimation progress:    60 %80 %100 %... Done!

ourModel

## Time elapsed: 0.08 seconds
## Model estimated using es() function: ETS(AAdN)
## With backcasting initialisation
## Distribution assumed in the model: Normal
## Loss function type: likelihood; Loss function value: 237.6128
## Persistence vector g:
##  alpha   beta 
## 0.9448 0.2979 
## Damping parameter: 0.8789
## Sample size: 138
## Number of estimated parameters: 6
## Number of degrees of freedom: 132
## Information criteria:
##      AIC     AICc      BIC     BICc 
## 487.2257 487.8669 504.7892 506.3689 
## 
## Forecast errors:
## ME: 2.817; MAE: 2.967; RMSE: 3.654
## sCE: 14.869%; Asymmetry: 88%; sMAE: 1.305%; sMSE: 0.026%
## MASE: 2.491; RMSSE: 2.382; rMAE: 0.957; rRMSE: 0.954

In this case function uses branch and bound algorithm to form a pool of models to check and after that constructs a model with the lowest information criterion. As we can see, it also produces an output with brief information about the model, which contains:

1. How much time was elapsed for the model construction;
2. What type of ETS was selected;
3. Values of persistence vector (smoothing parameters);
4. What type of initialisation was used;
5. How many parameters were estimated (standard deviation is included);
6. Cost function type and the value of that cost function;
7. Information criteria for this model;
8. Forecast errors (because we have set holdout=TRUE).

The function has also produced a graph with actual values, fitted values and point forecasts.

If we need prediction interval, then we can use the forecast() method:

plot(forecast(ourModel, h=12, interval="prediction"))

The same model can be reused for different purposes, for example to produce forecasts based on newly available data:

es(BJsales, model=ourModel, h=12, holdout=FALSE)

## Time elapsed: 0 seconds
## Model estimated using es() function: ETS(AAdN)
## With provided initialisation
## Distribution assumed in the model: Normal
## Loss function type: likelihood; Loss function value: 259.7882
## Persistence vector g:
##  alpha   beta 
## 0.9448 0.2979 
## Damping parameter: 0.8789
## Sample size: 150
## Number of estimated parameters: 1
## Number of degrees of freedom: 149
## Number of provided parameters: 5
## Information criteria:
##      AIC     AICc      BIC     BICc 
## 521.5763 521.6034 524.5870 524.6547

We can also extract the type of model in order to reuse it later:

modelType(ourModel)

## [1] "AAdN"

This handy function also works with ets() from forecast package.

If we need actual values from the model, we can use actuals() method from greybox package:

actuals(ourModel)

## Time Series:
## Start = 1 
## End = 138 
## Frequency = 1 
##   [1] 200.1 199.5 199.4 198.9 199.0 200.2 198.6 200.0 200.3 201.2 201.6 201.5
##  [13] 201.5 203.5 204.9 207.1 210.5 210.5 209.8 208.8 209.5 213.2 213.7 215.1
##  [25] 218.7 219.8 220.5 223.8 222.8 223.8 221.7 222.3 220.8 219.4 220.1 220.6
##  [37] 218.9 217.8 217.7 215.0 215.3 215.9 216.7 216.7 217.7 218.7 222.9 224.9
##  [49] 222.2 220.7 220.0 218.7 217.0 215.9 215.8 214.1 212.3 213.9 214.6 213.6
##  [61] 212.1 211.4 213.1 212.9 213.3 211.5 212.3 213.0 211.0 210.7 210.1 211.4
##  [73] 210.0 209.7 208.8 208.8 208.8 210.6 211.9 212.8 212.5 214.8 215.3 217.5
##  [85] 218.8 220.7 222.2 226.7 228.4 233.2 235.7 237.1 240.6 243.8 245.3 246.0
##  [97] 246.3 247.7 247.6 247.8 249.4 249.0 249.9 250.5 251.5 249.0 247.6 248.8
## [109] 250.4 250.7 253.0 253.7 255.0 256.2 256.0 257.4 260.4 260.0 261.3 260.4
## [121] 261.6 260.8 259.8 259.0 258.9 257.4 257.7 257.9 257.4 257.3 257.6 258.9
## [133] 257.8 257.7 257.2 257.5 256.8 257.5

We can also use persistence or initials only from the model to construct the other one:

# Provided initials
es(BJsales, model=modelType(ourModel),
   h=12, holdout=FALSE,
   initial=ourModel$initial)

## Time elapsed: 0.02 seconds
## Model estimated using es() function: ETS(AAdN)
## With provided initialisation
## Distribution assumed in the model: Normal
## Loss function type: likelihood; Loss function value: 259.7412
## Persistence vector g:
##  alpha   beta 
## 0.9674 0.2741 
## Damping parameter: 0.8787
## Sample size: 150
## Number of estimated parameters: 4
## Number of degrees of freedom: 146
## Number of provided parameters: 2
## Information criteria:
##      AIC     AICc      BIC     BICc 
## 527.4824 527.7582 539.5249 540.2160

# Provided persistence
es(BJsales, model=modelType(ourModel),
   h=12, holdout=FALSE,
   persistence=ourModel$persistence)

## Time elapsed: 0.01 seconds
## Model estimated using es() function: ETS(AAdN)
## With backcasting initialisation
## Distribution assumed in the model: Normal
## Loss function type: likelihood; Loss function value: 255.3469
## Persistence vector g:
##  alpha   beta 
## 0.9448 0.2979 
## Damping parameter: 0.8737
## Sample size: 150
## Number of estimated parameters: 4
## Number of degrees of freedom: 146
## Number of provided parameters: 2
## Information criteria:
##      AIC     AICc      BIC     BICc 
## 518.6938 518.9696 530.7363 531.4274

or provide some arbitrary values:

es(BJsales, model=modelType(ourModel),
   h=12, holdout=FALSE,
   initial=200)

## Time elapsed: 0.03 seconds
## Model estimated using es() function: ETS(AAdN)
## With provided initialisation
## Distribution assumed in the model: Normal
## Loss function type: likelihood; Loss function value: 255.4015
## Persistence vector g:
##  alpha   beta 
## 1.0000 0.2709 
## Damping parameter: 0.8854
## Sample size: 150
## Number of estimated parameters: 5
## Number of degrees of freedom: 145
## Number of provided parameters: 1
## Information criteria:
##      AIC     AICc      BIC     BICc 
## 520.8031 521.2198 535.8563 536.9002

Using some other parameters may lead to completely different model and forecasts (see discussion of the additional parameters in the online textbook about ADAM):

es(BJsales, h=12, holdout=TRUE, loss="MSEh", bounds="a", ic="BIC")

## Time elapsed: 0.14 seconds
## Model estimated using es() function: ETS(AAN)
## With backcasting initialisation
## Distribution assumed in the model: Normal
## Loss function type: MSEh; Loss function value: 78.4964
## Persistence vector g:
## alpha  beta 
## 1.544 0.000 
## 
## Sample size: 138
## Number of estimated parameters: 5
## Number of degrees of freedom: 133
## Information criteria:
##      AIC     AICc      BIC     BICc 
## 1003.728 1004.183 1018.365 1019.484 
## 
## Forecast errors:
## ME: -0.492; MAE: 1.226; RMSE: 1.371
## sCE: -2.596%; Asymmetry: -45.6%; sMAE: 0.539%; sMSE: 0.004%
## MASE: 1.029; RMSSE: 0.894; rMAE: 0.396; rRMSE: 0.358

You can play around with all the available parameters to see what’s their effect on the final model.

In order to combine forecasts we need to use “C” letter:

es(BJsales, model="CCN", h=12, holdout=TRUE)

## Time elapsed: 0.2 seconds
## Model estimated: ETS(CCN)
## Loss function type: likelihood
## 
## Number of models combined: 10
## Sample size: 138
## Average number of estimated parameters: 5.8867
## Average number of degrees of freedom: 132.1133
## 
## Forecast errors:
## ME: 2.833; MAE: 2.981; RMSE: 3.672
## sCE: 14.957%; sMAE: 1.311%; sMSE: 0.026%
## MASE: 2.502; RMSSE: 2.393; rMAE: 0.962; rRMSE: 0.958

Model selection from a specified pool and forecasts combination are called using respectively:

# Select the best model in the pool
es(BJsales, model=c("ANN","AAN","AAdN","MNN","MAN","MAdN"),
   h=12, holdout=TRUE)

## Time elapsed: 0.08 seconds
## Model estimated using es() function: ETS(AAdN)
## With backcasting initialisation
## Distribution assumed in the model: Normal
## Loss function type: likelihood; Loss function value: 237.6128
## Persistence vector g:
##  alpha   beta 
## 0.9448 0.2979 
## Damping parameter: 0.8789
## Sample size: 138
## Number of estimated parameters: 6
## Number of degrees of freedom: 132
## Information criteria:
##      AIC     AICc      BIC     BICc 
## 487.2257 487.8669 504.7892 506.3689 
## 
## Forecast errors:
## ME: 2.817; MAE: 2.967; RMSE: 3.654
## sCE: 14.869%; Asymmetry: 88%; sMAE: 1.305%; sMSE: 0.026%
## MASE: 2.491; RMSSE: 2.382; rMAE: 0.957; rRMSE: 0.954

# Combine the pool of models
es(BJsales, model=c("CCC","ANN","AAN","AAdN","MNN","MAN","MAdN"),
   h=12, holdout=TRUE)

## Time elapsed: 0.08 seconds
## Model estimated: ETS(CCN)
## Loss function type: likelihood
## 
## Number of models combined: 6
## Sample size: 138
## Average number of estimated parameters: 5.8604
## Average number of degrees of freedom: 132.1396
## 
## Forecast errors:
## ME: 2.837; MAE: 2.984; RMSE: 3.676
## sCE: 14.977%; sMAE: 1.312%; sMSE: 0.026%
## MASE: 2.505; RMSSE: 2.396; rMAE: 0.962; rRMSE: 0.959

Now we introduce explanatory variable in ETS:

x <- BJsales.lead

and fit an ETSX model with the exogenous variable first:

es(BJsales, model="ZZZ", h=12, holdout=TRUE,
   xreg=x)

## Time elapsed: 0.53 seconds
## Model estimated using es() function: ETSX(AMdN)
## With backcasting initialisation
## Distribution assumed in the model: Normal
## Loss function type: likelihood; Loss function value: 237.5066
## Persistence vector g (excluding xreg):
##  alpha   beta 
## 0.9505 0.2902 
## Damping parameter: 0.8773
## Sample size: 138
## Number of estimated parameters: 7
## Number of degrees of freedom: 131
## Information criteria:
##      AIC     AICc      BIC     BICc 
## 489.0132 489.8747 509.5040 511.6265 
## 
## Forecast errors:
## ME: 2.876; MAE: 3; RMSE: 3.702
## sCE: 15.183%; Asymmetry: 90%; sMAE: 1.319%; sMSE: 0.027%
## MASE: 2.518; RMSSE: 2.413; rMAE: 0.968; rRMSE: 0.966

If we want to check if lagged x can be used for forecasting purposes, we can use xregExpander() function from greybox package:

es(BJsales, model="ZZZ", h=12, holdout=TRUE,
   xreg=xregExpander(x), regressors="use")

## Time elapsed: 1.62 seconds
## Model estimated using es() function: ETSX(AMdN)
## With backcasting initialisation
## Distribution assumed in the model: Normal
## Loss function type: likelihood; Loss function value: 236.4436
## Persistence vector g (excluding xreg):
##  alpha   beta 
## 1.0000 0.3147 
## Damping parameter: 0.8377
## Sample size: 138
## Number of estimated parameters: 9
## Number of degrees of freedom: 129
## Information criteria:
##      AIC     AICc      BIC     BICc 
## 490.8872 492.2934 517.2325 520.6970 
## 
## Forecast errors:
## ME: 2.346; MAE: 2.849; RMSE: 3.347
## sCE: 12.383%; Asymmetry: 72.4%; sMAE: 1.253%; sMSE: 0.022%
## MASE: 2.392; RMSSE: 2.182; rMAE: 0.919; rRMSE: 0.873

We can also construct a model with selected exogenous (based on IC):

es(BJsales, model="ZZZ", h=12, holdout=TRUE,
   xreg=xregExpander(x), regressors="select")

## Time elapsed: 1.08 seconds
## Model estimated using es() function: ETS(AMdN)
## With backcasting initialisation
## Distribution assumed in the model: Normal
## Loss function type: likelihood; Loss function value: 237.5549
## Persistence vector g:
##  alpha   beta 
## 0.9443 0.2959 
## Damping parameter: 0.8733
## Sample size: 138
## Number of estimated parameters: 6
## Number of degrees of freedom: 132
## Information criteria:
##      AIC     AICc      BIC     BICc 
## 487.1098 487.7510 504.6733 506.2531 
## 
## Forecast errors:
## ME: 2.819; MAE: 2.969; RMSE: 3.656
## sCE: 14.879%; Asymmetry: 88%; sMAE: 1.306%; sMSE: 0.026%
## MASE: 2.492; RMSSE: 2.383; rMAE: 0.958; rRMSE: 0.954

Finally, if you work with M or M3 data, and need to test a function on a specific time series, you can use the following simplified call:

es(Mcomp::M3$N2457, silent=FALSE)

This command has taken the data, split it into in-sample and holdout and produced the forecast of appropriate length to the holdout.