NAME
    Math::EMA - compute the exponential moving average

SYNOPSIS
      use Math::EMA;
      my $avg=Math::EMA->new(alpha=>0.926119, ema=>$initial_value);
      $avg->set_param($iterations, $end_weight);
      $avg->alpha=$new_alpha;
      $avg->ema=$new_value;
      $avg->add($some_value);
      my $ema=$avg->ema;

INSTALLATION
     perl Makefile.PL
     make
     make test
     make install

DEPENDENCIES
    * perl 5.8.0

DESCRIPTION
    This module computes an exponential moving average by the following
    formula

      avg(n+1) = (1 - alpha) * new_value + alpha * avg(n)

    where alpha is a number between 0 and 1.

    That means a new value influences the average with a certain weight
    (1-alpha). That weight then exponentially vanes when other values are
    added.

  How to choose alpha?
    The value of alpha determines how fast a given value vanes but it never
    completely drops out. Assume you can define a limit say after 10
    iterations the weight of a certain value should be 1% or 0.01. Then

                   _____
             _10  /     `
     alpha =  \  / 0.01   = exp( log(0.01) / 10 )
               \/

  Methods
   Math::EMA->new( key=>value, ... )
    creates a new "Math::EMA" object. Parameters are passed as "key=>value"
    pairs. Currently these keys are recognized:

    *   alpha

        initializes alpha. Alpha must be in the range from 0 to 1.

    *   ema

        initializes the average. If an uninitialized ema is used the first
        value being added initializes it.

   $obj->alpha
    set or retrieve the current alpha

   $obj->ema
    set or retrieve the current average

   $obj->set_param($iterations, $end_weight)
    computes alpha from the passed values. After $iterations new values a
    certain value should have a weight of $end_weight in the average.

SEE ALSO
    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_average#Exponential_moving_average>

    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_smoothing#The_exponential_movi
    ng_average>

AUTHOR
    Torsten Förtsch, <torsten.foertsch@gmx.net>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
    Copyright (C) 2008 by Torsten Foertsch

    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.10.0 or, at
    your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.