Multivariate Quantile Bayesian Structural Time Series (MQBSTS) Model

In this paper, we propose the multivariate quantile Bayesian structural time series (MQBSTS) model for the joint quantile time series forecast, which is the first such model for correlated multivariate time series to the author's best knowledge. The MQBSTS model also enables quantile based feature selection in its regression component where each time series has its own pool of contemporaneous external time series predictors, which is the first time that a fully data-driven quantile feature selection technique applicable to time series data to the author's best knowledge. Different from most machine learning algorithms, the MQBSTS model has very few hyper-parameters to tune, requires small datasets to train, converges fast, and is executable on ordinary personal computers. Extensive examinations on simulated data and empirical data confirmed that the MQBSTS model has superior performance in feature selection, parameter estimation, and forecast.