Earlier in this chapter, we mentioned common forecasting methods. One popular approach uses Time Series analysis to identify trends. When asking questions about data, trend is a very important keyword. By creating a question in Watson Analytics, you can have Watson use line visualizations to help you identify trends in the data. This would be of value in our Time Series forecasts.

To illustrate this, we can (for example) use the following question in Watson Analytics:

Which will generate the following visualization:

Of course, it is very easy to filter the visualization by clicking on a Product line listed on the right-hand side of the page:

If we click on the word Product line in the question, we can easily change Product line to Product:

And then, like before, filter the products to the three golfing products we want to see:

In the preceding screenshot, we can see the visualization that Watson Analytics has generated to show the trend of Gross margin on our favorite three products, quarter by quarter. However, we are forecasting Revenue, so let's change Gross margin to Revenue (by clicking on the word Gross margin and selecting Revenue):

Now, Watson Analytics updates our visualization again for us: