A novel integrated method for improving the forecasting accuracy of crude oil: ESMD-CFastICA-BiLSTM-Attention

The volatility of crude oil price can significantly impact the stability of the crude oil market and even the global economy. Effectively predicting global crude oil price and volatility provides a scientific basis for decision-making for market regulators and investors worldwide, promoting the sound development of the global economy. In this study, we integrate signal processing with deep learning methods to present an optimal forecasting strategy for global crude oil price and volatility. We select the daily price of the WTI crude oil market from April 4, 1983, to December 12, 2023, for calculating volatility. Subsequently, employing extreme-point symmetric empirical mode decomposition (ESMD), K-means clustering, and fast independent component analysis method, we decompose and reconstruct the forecasting data, obtaining independent components with non-Gaussian characteristics. These components serve as inputs to estimate the accuracy of various models, including BiLSTM, Attention, LSTM, SVR, RF, and their combinations, in predicting crude oil price and volatility from both a point prediction and interval prediction perspective. Empirical results demonstrate that data decomposition, reconstruction, and the BiLSTM-Attention model outperform other models in predicting crude oil price and volatility.