You can overlay a trendline on the chart to help viewers easily interpret a trend. A trendline, for example, helps predict future prices to understand the price movement in trade.

Add Trendlines to a Chart

1. From the Report Explorer, expand the Chart data region node and select Plot.

2. From the Properties inspector tab, go to Config > Overlays property.

   
   

3. Click Add, corresponding to the Overlays property.

   
   

4. Select the trendline type in the Type property.

5. Set the properties specific to the selected trendline, and other properties to customize color, thickness, etc.

   See the section Inspector Panel Properties.

   
   

   
   

The following types of trendlines are available:

• Reference Line

• Reference Band

• Linear Trendline

• Exponential Trendline

• Power Trendline

• Logarithmic Trendline

• Polynomial Trendline

• Fourier Trendline

• MovingAverage Trendline

• CumulativeMovingAverage Trendline

• ExponentialMovingAverage Trendline

• WeightedMovingAverage Trendline

• MovingAnnualTotal Trendline

Inspector Panel Properties

Let us learn how to overlay trendlines on a chart, taking the 'Income Statement' report as a sample and adding trendlines to the 'Revenue vs Gross Profit' chart. You should first follow the steps in the section Add Trendlines to a Chart.

Reference Line

A Reference Line is a static line, drawn at a single point along a single axis that stretches indefinitely along the opposite axis. You can set the line's position or have it calculated by the data set. For example, you may want to add a reference line at the average value to see how each value is compared against the average.

To add the Reference Line to the chart, set up the properties as described next.

• Type: ReferenceLine

• Display: Front

• Line Width: 3pt

• Line Color: Black

• Line Style: Solid

• Axis: Y

• Field: {Revenue}

• Aggregate Type: Average

• Detail Level: Group

• Legend Label: Avg. Revenue

Reference Band

A Reference Band is a shaded area, which is positioned along a single axis between two calculated values and extends indefinitely along the opposite axis. Each band has a start and end position that you set in the Properties.

This trendline is not available for Candlestick, High Low Close, and High Low Open Close type charts.

To add the Reference Band to the chart, set up the properties as described next.

• Type: ReferenceBand

• Display: Back

• Line Width: 3pt

• Line Color: Black

• Line Style: Solid

• Axis: Y

• Start: 4000

Linear Trendline

A Linear trendline creates a best fit straight line that shows how values in a data series increase or decrease at a steady rate. This trendline uses the following equation:

y = mx + b

where "m" is the slope and "b" is the intercept.

To add the Linear Trendline to the chart, set up the properties as described next.

• Type: LinearTrendline

• Display: Front

• Line Width: 3pt

• Line Style: Solid

• Line Color: Black

• Intercept:1

• Forward Forecast Period: 0

• Backward Forecast Period: 0

• Field: {Revenue}

• Legend Label: Avg. Revenue

• Detail Level: Total

Exponential Trendline

An Exponential trendline creates a best-fit curved line that illustrates how data values increase or decrease and then level out. You can use this trendline only with positive numbers. If the data series contains any zero or negative numbers, then this trendline is not available. This trendline uses the following equation:

y = cebx

where "c" and "b" are constants, and "e" is the base of the natural logarithm.

To add the Exponential trendline to the chart, set up the properties similar to the Linear Trendline, with the Type property 'ExponentialTrendline'.

Power Trendline

A Power trendline creates a curved line to compare measurements that increase at a specific rate. You can use this trendline only with positive numbers. If the data series contains any zero or negative numbers, then this trendline is not available.

This trendline uses the following equation:

y = axb

where "a" and "b" are constants.

To add the Power trendline to the chart, set up the properties similar to the Linear Trendline, with the Type property 'PowerTrendline'.

Logarithmic Trendline

A Logarithmic trendline creates a best-fit curved line that illustrates how data values increase or decrease and then level out. This trendline uses the following equation:

y = c ln(x) + b

where "c" and "b" are constants, and "ln" is the natural logarithm function.

To add the Logarithmic trendline to the chart, set up the properties similar to the Linear Trendline, with the Type property 'LogarithmicTrendline'.

Polynomial Trendline

A Polynomial trendline creates a curved line, illustrating fluctuations in the data values. The trendline uses the following equation:

y = b + c1x + c2x2 + c3x3 + ...

where c₁, c₂, c₃ are constants.

To add the Polynomial trendline to the chart, set up the properties similar to the Linear Trendline, with the Type property 'Polynomial Trendline' and Order value ranging from '2' to '6'.

Fourier Trendline

A Fourier trendline creates a trendline, based on the Fourier Series. It identifies patterns or cycles in a series data set, and removes the effects of trends or other complicating factors from the data set, thereby providing a good estimate of the direction that the data under analysis will take in the future.

y = C0 + C1 cos(x) + C2 sin(x) + C3 cos(2x) + C4 sin(2x) + ...

To add the FourierTrendline trendline to the chart, set up the properties similar to the Linear Trendline, with the Type property 'FourierTrendline' and Order value ranging from '2' to '6'.

MovingAverage Trendline

A MovingAverage trendline reduces the fluctuations in the trendline to show a smoother pattern. This trendline uses the following equation:

Ft = (At + At-1 + At-2 ) / n

To add the MovingAverage trendline to the chart, set the Type property to 'MovingAverage' and Period to a value that you want to specify as data points.

CumulativeMovingAverage Trendline

In a CumulativeMovingAverage trendline, the data arrive in an ordered datum stream, and you get the average of all data up until the current datum point.

To add the CumulativeMovingAverage trendline to the chart, set the Type property to 'CumulativeMovingAverage ' and Period to a value that you want to specify as data points.

ExponentialMovingAverage Trendline

An ExponentialMovingAverage (EMA), also known as an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA), is a first-order infinite impulse response filter that applies weighting factors, which decrease exponentially. The weighting for each older datum decreases exponentially, never reaching zero.

To add the ExponentialMovingAverage trendline to the chart, set the Type property to 'ExponentialMovingAverage ' and Period to a value that you want to specify as data points.

WeightedMovingAverage trendline

A WeightedMovingAverage trendline is an average that has multiplying factors to give different weights to data at different positions. Mathematically, the moving average is the convolution of the datum points with a fixed weighting function.

To add the WeightedMovingAverage trendline to the chart, set the Type property to 'WeightedMovingAverage' and Period to a value that you want to specify as data points.

MovingAnnualTotal trendline

A MovingAnnualTotal trendline is a moving total of the prior 'n' points at an abstract level.

To add the MovingAnnualTotal trendline to the chart, set the Type property to 'MovingAverageTotal' and Period to a value that you want to specify as data points.