when data is compiled it can be manipulated to remove or reduce any volatility or any other type of noise this is called data smoothing 
the idea behind data smoothing is that it can identify simplified changes in order to help predict different trends and patterns it acts as an aid for statisticians or traders who need to look at a lot of data that can often be complicated to digest to find patterns they would not otherwise see to explain with a visual representation imagine a one year chart for company x s stock each individual high point on the chart for the stock can be reduced while raising all the lower points this would make a smoother curve thus helping an investor make predictions about how the stock may perform in the future smoothed data is generally preferred by economists because it better identifies changes in trends compared to unsmoothed data which may appear more erratic and create false signals methods for data smoothingthere are different methods in which data smoothing can be done some of these include the randomization method using a random walk calculating a moving average or conducting one of several exponential smoothing techniques a simple moving average sma places equal weight on both recent prices and historical ones while an exponential moving average ema puts more weight on recent price data the random walk model is commonly used to describe the behavior of financial instruments such as stocks some investors believe that there is no relationship between past movement in a security s price and its future movement random walk smoothing assumes that future data points will equal the last available data point plus a random variable technical and fundamental analysts disagree with this idea they believe future movements can be extrapolated by examining past trends often used in technical analysis the moving average smooths out price action while it filters out volatility from random price movements this process is based on past prices making it a trend following or lagging indicator as can be seen in the price chart below the moving average ema has the general shape and trend of the underlying daily price data depicted by the candlesticks the more days incorporated into the moving average the more smoothed the line becomes advantages and disadvantages of data smoothingdata smoothing can be used to help identify trends in the economy in securities such as stocks and consumer sentiment data smoothing can also be used for other business purposes for example an economist can smooth out data to make seasonal adjustments for certain indicators like retail sales by reducing the variations that may occur each month like holidays or gas prices there are downfalls to using this tool however data smoothing doesn t always provide an explanation of the trends or patterns it helps identify it also may lead to certain data points being ignored by emphasizing others helps identify real trends by eliminating noise from the dataallows for seasonal adjustments of economic dataeasily achieved through several techniques including moving averagesremoving data always comes with less information to analyze increasing the risk of errors in analysissmoothing may emphasize analysts biases and ignore outliers that may be meaningfulexample of data smoothing in financial accountingan often cited example of data smoothing in business accounting is to make an allowance for doubtful accounts by changing bad debt expense from one reporting period to another for example a company expects not to receive payment for certain goods over two accounting periods 1 000 in the first reporting period and 5 000 in the second reporting period if the first reporting period is expected to have a high income the company may include the total amount of 6 000 as the allowance for doubtful accounts in that reporting period this would increase the bad debt expense on the income statement by 6 000 and reduce net income by 6 000 this would thereby smooth out a high income period by reducing income it s important for companies to use judgment and legal accounting methods when adjusting any accounts investopedia does not provide tax investment or financial services and advice the information is presented without consideration of the investment objectives risk tolerance or financial circumstances of any specific investor and might not be suitable for all investors investing involves risk including the possible loss of principal 