what is an example of the least squares method 
consider the case of an investor considering whether to invest in a gold mining company the investor might wish to know how sensitive the company s stock price is to changes in the market price of gold to study this the investor could use the least squares method to trace the relationship between those two variables over time onto a scatter plot this analysis could help the investor predict the degree to which the stock s price would likely rise or fall for any given increase or decrease in the price of gold who first discovered the least squares method although the inventor of the least squares method is up for debate the german mathematician carl friedrich gauss claims to have invented the theory in 1795 1the bottom linetraders and analysts have a number of tools available to help make predictions about the future performance of the markets and economy the least squares method is a form of regression analysis that is used by many technical analysts to identify trading opportunities and market trends it uses two variables that are plotted on a graph to show how they re related 