Question: Rental income at the Walsh Real Estate Company for the period February-July has been as follows:
(a) Use exponential smoothing with a = 0.2 and 0.4 to forecast August's income. Assume that the initial forecast for February is $78,000.
(b) Which smoothing constant provide a better forecast? Justify your answer.
(c) Determine the optimal value of a that minimizes MAPE.