The formula to calculate the 4-Quarter Moving Average is:
\[ \text{4-Quarter Moving Average} = \frac{\sum_{i=1}^{4} Q_i}{4} \]
Where:
A 4-quarter moving average is a method used to smooth out fluctuations in time series data by averaging each set of four consecutive quarters[^1^][^2^].
Consider an example where the quarterly values are:
Using the formula to calculate the 4-Quarter Moving Average:
\[ \text{First Average} = \frac{100 + 200 + 300 + 400}{4} = 250 \]
\[ \text{Second Average} = \frac{200 + 300 + 400 + 500}{4} = 350 \]
\[ \text{Third Average} = \frac{300 + 400 + 500 + 600}{4} = 450 \]
This means that the 4-quarter moving averages for this example are 250, 350, and 450.