Intelligent prediction of crude oil price using Support Vector Machines

Abstract

The price of crude oil is tied to major economic activities in all nations of the world, as a change in the price of crude oil invariably affects the cost of other goods and services. This has made the prediction of crude oil price a top priority for researchers and scientists alike. In this paper we present an intelligent system that predicts the price of crude oil. This system is based on Support Vector Machines. Support Vector Machines are supervised learners founded upon the principle of statistical learning theory. Our system utilized as its input key economic indicators which affect the price of crude oil and has as its output the price of crude oil. Data for our system was obtained from the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dataset spanning 24 years and experimental results obtained were very promising as it proved that support vector machines could be used with a high degree of accuracy in predicting crude oil price.