Google Sheets – How to Draw Trends in a Spreadsheet

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I have a graph on Google Sheets (based on two columns) that plots many points (think of it like the stock market):

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I would like the graph to not show the micro data and instead show trends.. something like this:

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ideas?

Best Answer

Use the SMA (Simple moving average). It works as follow

  • Take W points back (e.g. 3, 5 or 10, that's your window size) and do an average for them. This will create a new point
  • Use those newly created points to plot your line.

NOTE: at the end you'll have N-W+1 points where N is original number of points and W is your window size

Here is an example google sheet for Milk production per pound per month with smoothing via a window 3 and window 10 and the trend line (straight line)

enter image description here

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