Makridakis Open Forecasting CentER
Makridakis Open Forecasting Center (MOFC) conducts cutting-edge forecasting research, provides business support and training with emphasis on: Achieving accurate predictions, estimating the levels of uncertainty, avoiding costly mistakes and applying best forecasting practices to businesses.
Forecasts are essential for all business decisions: from setting up appropriate inventory/service levels to credible budgets to evaluating long-term strategic investments. The first objective of the expanding field of forecasting is to offer accurate predictions contributing to the success of such decisions. Its second and, equally as important goal is to provide precise estimates of the uncertainty inherent in all predictions and how to be able to deal with the resulting risks.
Forecasting objectives
- Providing decision and policy makers with objective information, based on the M Competitions
- Correctly estimating the level of uncertainty in the forecasts
Achieving the above two objectives would require a combination of the following:
- Utilizing the accumulated academic knowledge
- Applying best practices
- Avoiding common, harmful mistakes
- Expanding academic research to further improve our knowledge
MOFC Mission
The mission of the MOFC is to conduct multidisciplinary research in the area of forecasting with emphasis on improving accuracy and uncertainty and to expand the utilization of forecasting to business firms by identifying their needs, suggesting the most appropriate way of fulfilling them, demonstrating its benefits in reducing costs and/or improving profits while also avoiding untested practices. The Center’s vision is to improve the accuracy of forecasting as well as the correct estimation of uncertainty and to offer specific suggestions on how such improvements can be made and how to rationally deal with the ensuing risks.
M competitions
Accurate predictions and the correct assessment of the uncertainty are indispensable for all types of future-oriented decisions ‘from setting inventory levels to establishing strategic plans’. It is the express purpose of the M Competitions to improve those predictions/uncertainty as much as possible. The M Competitions have attracted great interest in both the academic literature and among practitioners, providing objective evidence of the most appropriate way of forecasting various variables of interest.
M6 COMPETITION key sponsors
M Conferences
The Makridakis Open Forecasting Center (MOFC) conducts conferences after the end of each M competition with the latest being “The Future of Forecasting and the M6 Competition, Conference”
The M6 Forecasting Competition took place from February 2022 to February 2023, which brought together a diverse range of participants from around the globe to forecast financial (stock and ETF) prices and explore the relationship between forecast accuracy and investment returns.
News
The Makridakis Open Forecasting Center at the University of Nicosia’s Institute for the Future (IFF) announces the successful conclusion of both the M6 Financial Forecasting Competition and the "Future of Forecasting and the M6 Competition" Conference.
