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Trends

Learn how to use Trends

Oliver Zdravkovski avatar
Written by Oliver Zdravkovski
Updated over 4 months ago

In this help doc

See also


Introduction to Trends

A trend is defined as “a general direction in which something is developing or changing.”

Trends have different slopes or gradients.

In MetaPulse we’ve identified seven different types of trends and assigned each a color as follows:

The Trend feature will automatically identify Trends:

Keep in mind, the trend shading provides a guide of the possible trend, it is not absolute. That's why we've added a Flagging Feature, so you can help MetaPulse learn how to better identify trends.

See also:


Verify Trend

  1. Click Trends

  2. Select the proper Organization if you have more than one

  3. Select the desired Team Chart If you have more than one

  4. You can search by a specific area

  5. Click Apply

  6. Click on the desired graph

  7. Click Verify Trend

    NOTE: If you don't see the checkmark, it means that you don't have the "Verify All" permissions to verify a trend. To set the permissions, see Trend permissions.


Flag a Trend

  1. Click Trends

  2. Select the proper Organization if you have more than one

  3. Select the desired Team Chart If you have more than one

  4. You can search by a specific area

  5. Click Apply

  6. Click on the desired graph

  7. If you think the trend identified is incorrect, click the Flag (⚑).

  8. Choose the Correct Trend - See How Trends are Generated for more info. You can also use the Steepness Guide as a reference point. See image above.

  9. Choose the Correct Range - The number of values counted from the most recent.

  10. Add any additional information

  11. Click Submit


How Trends are Generated

You may have noticed that trends can vary over a number of periods.

Trend Generation

If one of these activities occurs, it will trigger the generation of a new trend:

  • Any data point is created, updated or deleted.

  • The graph is viewed in a non-default frequency.

  • The current trend appears no longer valid or relevant.

Minimum Data Points

A graph must have at least 3 eligible data points for it to generate a trend.

An eligible datapoint is one that:

  • Is within 15 periods of today

  • Does not end after today

Ideal Trend Length

The number of data points is determined by the system trying to mark where the graph trend last changed more than one grade. This is why some trends have 3 or more data points.

The system will allow a short trend and a long trend, but generally tries to find a trend of about 5 points or more if it can.

When is a Trend Identified?

A trend will be identified by the system and highlighted from when the trend last changed significantly which means the trend would be two levels or more apart.

The possible trend levels are:

So for example, if a graph is just slightly up for the most recent 6 periods, and before that it was steeply up for more than 3 periods (which has the "Up" level between them), then the system will identify a 6 period trend of being slightly up, as 6 weeks ago the trend changed significantly from steeply up, down to slightly up.

A graph that is floating between up and slightly up for example would not create a trend at the change point of up to slightly up as this is not a significant trend change.


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