代写 BUSINESS 111 STATISTICS I
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YUKON COLLEGE
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM
BUSINESS 111
STATISTICS I
ASSIGNMENT #1
1) This assignment is due on Tuesday, March 8 (5:00 pm). It would probably make
sense to do the assignment right away - and get it finished - but you might want to
leave the assignment until later on in February. You may work on the assignment
individually, or in a group of two or three people.
2) The assignment does not have to be written up in any particular format. However,
you should make sure that you answer the assignment questions in as much detail as
is required (a sample assignment and sample answer key have been placed posted to
the Business 111 Moodle/SoftChalk page). I expect the assignment to be
word-processed, unless you have a reasonable excuse not to do so, and you inform
me of this excuse prior to the submittal date.
3) The assignment has been set up such that you can complete much of your analysis
using MINITAB. If you would like to use another software package (e.g. EXCEL), or
if you would like to complete the assignment by hand - an impossible task - please
feel free to do so. As an incentive to use MINITAB, the instructor has placed the
data for this case in a file named A1-2016.mtw, which can be located in the
appropriate section on the course web page. The EXCEL 2013 file A1-2016.xlxs has
also been posted to the course web page.
4) The assignment is worth 7% of your final grade in the course.
2
ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
The data in the files A1-2016.mtw and A1-2016.xlxs is shown in Exhibits #1 through #12.
The worksheet data is comprised of four columns of commodity prices, reported in U.S.
dollars per barrel (Brent and West Texas Intermediate; i.e. two varieties of crude oil),
U.S. dollars per tonne (methanol) and U.S. dollars per million BTU (natural gas), and
two columns of stock prices, reported in U.S. dollars per share. Column 1 (n = 132) is a
date column. Column 2 (n = 132) shows the monthly average Brent oil price. Column 3
(n = 132) shows the monthly average WTI price. Column 4 (n = 132) shows the monthly
average methanol price. Column 5 (n = 132) shows the monthly average natural gas
price. Column 6 (n = 132) shows the month-end stock price for Methanex Corporation.
Column 7 (n = 132) shows the month-end stock price for Encana Corporation.
Your task is to put together a report based on a descriptive evaluation of the commodity
and company stock prices.
Make sure you answer the following questions in their entirety, and make sure that you
include the requisite computer output and/or calculations.
1) Generate some basic statistics for the 2005 to 2015 monthly Brent, WTI, methanol
and natural gas prices. Report the number of observations, the mean, the median,
the standard deviation, the minimum price, the maximum price, the first and third
quartiles and the skewness for each of the four commodities. Further summarize the
results of your computer output by constructing a table which compares the
arithmetic mean grade, the median grade and the standard deviation of the prices
for the four commodities. Report the Brent, WTI and natural gas statistics to nearest
cent (i.e. two decimal places).
[ 4 marks ]
2) Organize the information on the preceding commodities into four separate
histograms. Briefly comment on the general shape of the four price distributions.
[ 8 marks ]
3) Generate some basic statistics for the 2005 to 2015 month-end Methanex and Encana
stock prices. Report the number of observations, the mean, the median, the standard
deviation, the minimum price, the maximum price, the first and third quartiles and
the skewness for both of the gold mining companies. Further summarize the results
of your computer output by constructing a table which compares the arithmetic
mean price, the median price and the standard deviation of the prices for the two
companies. Report the statistics to the nearest cent (i.e. two decimal places).
[ 2 marks ]
3
4) Organize the information on the 2005 to 2015 month-end Methanex and Encana
stock prices into two separate stem-and-leaf diagrams. Comment on the general
appearance of the stem-and-leaf diagrams.
[ 4 marks ]
5) Develop a multiple box plot for the preceding stock price data. Which stock price
shows the most variability, Methanex’s or Encana’s ?
[ 3 marks ]
6) Use the coefficient of variation to determine a) which of the four energy prices
showed the most variation during the period 2005 to 2015 and b) which of the two
companies’ stock prices showed the most variation during the period 2005 to 2015.
[ 4 marks ]
7) Now consider the 2005 to 2015 month-end stock prices for Methanex and Encana
(separately). Do approximately 95% of the daily stock prices fall within plus or
minus two standard deviations of the mean, as predicted by the empirical rule ?
[ 6 marks ]
8) Are the 2005 to 2015 energy prices normally distributed (i.e. do the energy prices
assume bell-shaped distributions) ?
[ 8 marks ]
9) Oil prices should theoretically move in tandem. Assume that the price of Brent
crude depends on the price of West Texas Intermediate crude and construct a
scatter graph for 2005 to 2105. What do you observe ?
[ 4 marks ]
10) Modify the preceding scatter graph by joining the observations from the beginning
of the time period to the end of the time period. Does this make the relationship
between the prices of the two types of crude oil any clearer ?
[ 2 marks ]
11) Methanol and natural gas prices should theoretically move in tandem. Assume that
methanol prices depend on natural gas prices and construct a scatter graph for 2005
to 2015. What do you observe ?
[ 3 marks ]
4
12) Methanex Corporation is a Canadian company that supplies, distributes and
markets methanol on a worldwide basis. The primary raw material used in the
production of methanol is natural gas. Encana Corporation is a Canadian company
that produces transports and markets natural gas and natural gas liquids.
Presumably the profitability and stock price of these two companies would be
closely related to the price of natural gas. Verify this relationship by constructing
two scatter graphs of the company stock prices versus the price of natural gas. What
do you observe ?
[ 6 marks ]
13) Were the stock prices of Methanex and Encana correlated during the period 2005 to
2015 ? Generate a scatter graph so that you can observe the relationship between the
two companies’ stock prices during this eleven-year period.
[ 3 marks ]
[ 57 marks in total ]
5
Exhibit #1
代写 BUSINESS 111 STATISTICS I
Average Monthly Energy and Month-End Stock Prices
2005 and 2006
Date Brent WTI Methanol Gas Methanex Encana
Jan 2005 44.28 46.82 316 6.15 16.12 59.09
Feb 2005 45.56 47.96 316 6.14 18.04 66.89
Mar 2005 53.08 54.17 316 6.65 19.43 70.42
Apr 2005 51.86 52.96 316 7.18 16.65 63.86
May 2005 48.67 49.81 316 6.47 18.59 34.67
Jun 2005 54.31 56.39 316 7.18 16.47 39.59
Jul 2005 57.58 58.67 299 7.65 16.20 41.35
Aug 2005 64.09 64.96 299 9.52 15.20 49.19
Sep 2005 62.98 65.54 299 12.42 14.87 58.31
Oct 2005 58.52 62.36 319 13.63 16.06 45.86
Nov 2005 55.53 58.28 319 10.30 17.52 44.32
Dec 2005 56.75 59.41 339 13.05 18.74 45.16
Jan 2006 63.57 65.48 339 8.69 21.67 49.86
Feb 2006 59.92 61.62 356 7.53 19.88 41.31
Mar 2006 62.25 62.89 356 6.88 20.53 46.73
Apr 2006 70.44 69.54 356 7.17 22.12 50.05
May 2006 70.19 70.93 343 6.25 23.48 50.54
Jun 2006 68.86 70.93 343 6.20 21.18 52.64
Jul 2006 73.90 74.40 333 6.17 19.12 54.06
Aug 2006 73.61 73.04 343 7.13 23.95 52.74
Sep 2006 62.77 63.82 442 4.90 24.34 46.69
Oct 2006 58.38 58.85 599 5.84 22.65 47.49
Nov 2006 58.48 59.13 599 7.41 24.79 52.21
Dec 2006 62.31 62.00 599 6.73 27.37 45.95
Pricing Information on Second Page of Assignment
6
Exhibit #2
Average Monthly Energy and Month-End Stock Prices
2007 and 2008
Date Brent WTI Methanol Gas Methanex Encana
Jan 2007 54.30 54.24 599 6.53 26.76 48.03
Feb 2007 57.76 59.25 549 8.00 25.29 48.57
Mar 2007 62.14 60.60 516 7.11 22.33 50.63
Apr 2007 67.40 63.94 336 7.60 23.98 52.45
May 2007 67.48 63.45 336 7.64 25.97 61.40
Jun 2007 71.32 67.49 336 7.35 25.14 61.45
Jul 2007 77.20 74.14 309 6.22 24.79 60.98
Aug 2007 70.80 72.38 309 6.22 22.55 58.50
Sep 2007 77.13 79.91 319 6.07 25.40 61.85
Oct 2007 83.04 85.90 565 6.74 30.42 69.70
Nov 2007 92.53 94.76 665 7.11 29.76 65.25
Dec 2007 91.45 91.36 832 7.13 27.60 67.96
Jan 2008 91.92 92.98 832 7.98 25.09 66.06
Feb 2008 94.82 95.38 698 8.54 28.81 76.21
Mar 2008 103.28 105.47 632 9.41 26.17 75.75
Apr 2008 110.44 112.62 532 10.18 23.46 80.81
May 2008 123.94 125.37 499 11.27 28.65 90.37
Jun 2008 133.05 133.93 526 12.68 28.02 90.93
Jul 2008 133.90 133.38 526 11.09 27.08 72.19
Aug 2008 113.85 116.64 526 8.25 25.22 74.90
Sep 2008 99.06 103.94 526 7.62 19.89 65.73
Oct 2008 72.84 76.61 499 6.74 11.79 50.91
Nov 2008 53.24 57.29 466 6.70 10.63 46.81
Dec 2008 41.58 41.44 333 5.84 11.24 46.48
Pricing Information on Second Page of Assignment
7
Exhibit #3
Average Monthly Energy and Month-End Stock Prices
2009 and 2010
Date Brent WTI Methanol Gas Methanex Encana
Jan 2009 44.86 41.74 233 5.23 7.77 44.34
Feb 2009 43.24 39.15 233 4.49 7.32 39.37
Mar 2009 46.84 47.98 216 3.96 7.81 40.61
Apr 2009 50.85 49.81 200 3.49 11.47 45.73
May 2009 57.94 59.12 200 3.83 11.98 55.43
Jun 2009 68.59 69.58 200 3.80 12.24 49.47
Jul 2009 64.92 64.14 226 3.39 16.42 53.65
Aug 2009 72.50 71.06 239 3.14 17.90 51.99
Sep 2009 67.69 69.44 279 2.99 17.31 57.61
Oct 2009 73.19 75.77 316 4.00 17.15 55.39
Nov 2009 77.04 78.00 333 3.68 17.93 53.88
Dec 2009 74.67 74.49 366 5.35 19.49 32.39
Jan 2010 76.37 78.34 366 5.84 22.32 30.59
Feb 2010 74.31 76.30 366 5.32 23.75 32.78
Mar 2010 79.27 81.25 366 4.29 24.31 31.03
Apr 2010 84.93 84.50 366 4.04 23.18 33.07
May 2010 76.25 73.74 333 4.15 21.05 30.85
Jun 2010 74.84 75.35 349 4.80 19.69 30.34
Jul 2010 74.74 76.16 349 4.63 22.43 30.53
Aug 2010 76.69 76.60 349 4.31 21.35 27.49
Sep 2010 77.79 75.26 359 3.89 24.49 30.23
Oct 2010 82.92 81.90 359 3.43 27.77 28.22
Nov 2010 85.67 84.19 442 3.71 29.31 27.70
Dec 2010 91.80 89.22 459 4.25 30.40 29.12
Pricing Information on Second Page of Assignment
8
Exhibit #4
Average Monthly Energy and Month-End Stock Prices
2011 and 2012
Date Brent WTI Methanol Gas Methanex Encana
Jan 2011 96.29 89.51 449 4.49 27.26 32.27
Feb 2011 103.96 89.37 426 4.09 29.10 32.54
Mar 2011 114.44 102.92 426 3.97 31.23 34.53
Apr 2011 123.15 110.04 426 4.24 32.30 33.53
May 2011 114.46 101.25 426 4.31 31.91 34.10
Jun 2011 113.76 96.25 426 4.54 31.38 30.79
Jul 2011 116.46 97.19 426 4.42 29.64 29.29
Aug 2011 110.08 86.32 459 4.05 26.02 25.41
Sep 2011 110.88 85.62 459 3.89 20.84 19.21
Oct 2011 109.47 86.41 459 3.56 25.84 21.70
Nov 2011 110.50 97.07 459 3.26 24.45 20.05
Dec 2011 107.97 98.61 459 3.16 22.82 18.53
Jan 2012 110.99 100.15 446 2.67 27.18 19.13
Feb 2012 119.70 102.26 446 2.53 31.34 20.40
Mar 2012 124.93 106.15 446 2.16 32.43 19.65
Apr 2012 120.59 103.28 446 1.95 35.16 20.94
May 2012 110.52 94.51 459 2.43 27.97 19.89
Jun 2012 95.59 82.36 459 2.45 27.84 20.83
Jul 2012 103.14 87.89 439 2.96 27.57 22.25
Aug 2012 113.34 94.11 439 2.84 29.81 22.20
Sep 2012 113.38 94.61 439 2.85 28.54 21.92
Oct 2012 111.97 89.52 439 3.32 30.00 22.55
Nov 2012 109.71 86.69 482 3.54 30.24 21.79
Dec 2012 109.64 88.19 482 3.34 31.87 19.76
Pricing Information on Second Page of Assignment
9
Exhibit #5
Average Monthly Energy and Month-End Stock Prices
2013 and 2014
Date Brent WTI Methanol Gas Methanex Encana
Jan 2013 112.93 94.65 482 3.33 35.86 19.36
Feb 2013 116.46 95.30 482 3.33 36.58 17.98
Mar 2013 109.24 93.12 516 3.80 40.63 19.46
Apr 2013 102.88 92.02 516 4.17 42.38 18.45
May 2013 103.03 94.72 532 4.04 44.20 19.03
Jun 2013 103.11 95.79 532 3.83 42.84 16.94
Jul 2013 107.72 104.55 532 3.62 47.83 17.52
Aug 2013 110.96 106.55 532 3.43 46.49 17.10
Sep 2013 111.62 106.31 532 3.62 51.27 17.33
Oct 2013 109.48 100.50 549 3.67 58.16 17.92
Nov 2013 108.08 93.81 599 3.62 61.40 19.19
Dec 2013 110.63 97.90 632 4.24 59.24 18.05
Jan 2014 107.57 95.00 632 4.70 59.92 17.97
Feb 2014 108.81 100.70 632 5.98 70.33 18.98
Mar 2014 107.41 100.57 632 4.88 63.94 21.38
Apr 2014 107.88 102.18 599 4.63 62.00 23.21
May 2014 109.68 102.00 565 4.56 57.10 23.31
Jun 2014 111.87 105.24 532 4.57 61.78 23.71
Jul 2014 106.98 102.99 482 4.01 65.07 21.55
Aug 2014 101.92 96.38 482 3.89 66.82 23.03
Sep 2014 97.34 93.35 482 3.92 66.80 21.21
Oct 2014 87.27 84.40 482 3.77 59.34 18.63
Nov 2014 78.44 75.70 499 4.10 51.66 15.78
Dec 2014 62.16 59.10 475 3.43 45.83 13.87
Pricing Information on Second Page of Assignment
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Exhibit #6
Average Monthly Energy and Month-End Stock Prices
2015
Date Brent WTI Methanol Gas Methanex Encana
Jan 2015 48.42 47.60 449 2.97 44.10 12.24
Feb 2015 57.93 50.72 416 2.85 54.30 13.05
Mar 2015 55.79 47.78 416 2.80 53.57 11.15
Apr 2015 59.39 54.20 416 2.58 60.21 14.21
May 2015 64.56 59.26 442 2.84 55.49 12.66
Jun 2015 62.35 59.80 442 2.77 55.66 11.02
Jul 2015 55.87 51.16 442 2.83 45.09 7.59
Aug 2015 46.99 42.86 416 2.76 40.76 7.44
Sep 2015 47.23 45.48 366 2.65 33.16 6.44
Oct 2015 48.12 46.20 366 2.32 39.93 7.63
Nov 2015 44.42 42.65 349 2.08 39.22 8.34
Dec 2015 37.72 37.24 349 1.92 32.43 5.54
Pricing Information on Second Page of Assignment
11
MINITAB INSTRUCTIONS
Copy the file A1-2016.mtw from the course Moodle/SoftChalk page to a storage device
of your own. The MINITAB (and EXCEL) data files can be found in the Assignment
One section on the course web page. It may take a minute or two for the MINITAB data
file to open if you are working in the College computer labs or library.
You will need to have MINITAB installed on the computer you are using if you intend
to open the MINITAB assignment file directly from the web page. If you don’t have
MINITAB installed, you can always copy and save the EXCEL assignment file to a
storage device of your own. MINITAB will readily open EXCEL files when the time
comes to actually use MINITAB (in the College computer labs, perhaps).
If you already have the file A1-2016.mtw on a storage device of your own, and you’re
working on a computer in one of the Yukon College labs, select Start > All Programs >
Accounting, Business and Statistics > MINITAB 17 Statistical Software.
Expand the worksheet - you’re now ready to begin using MINITAB.
Retrieve the data file from your floppy disk by selecting File > Open Worksheet, and
select (for example) G:\A1-2016.mtw > Open > OK.
The A1-2016.mtw file is not overwhelmingly large, but it might be useful to have a hard
copy of the data to refer to as you proceed through the assignment. Fortunately, the data
in the A1-2016 file has been reproduced in Exhibits #1 through #6 of the assignment, so
you can move on to the next step.
The first thing you’re asked to do in this assignment is to generate some basic statistics
for the 2005 to 2015 commodity prices. You can do this by selecting Stat > Basic
Statistics > Display Descriptive Statistics > Double-clicking on Columns 2 through 5
(the four precious metals prices) so that they appear in the Variables: box > Clicking the
Statistics button > selecting Skewness and de-selecting SE of mean and N missing >
OK > OK. The descriptive statistics will appear in the MINITAB session window and
you can highlight and copy the text output and paste it into a MICROSOFT WORD
document (i.e. the document you are going to submit for marking).
The preceding paragraph describes the optimal approach to the first question. However, you can
also select Stat > Basic Statistics > Graphical Summary, select the four columns so that they
appear in the Variables: box and click the OK button to produce four separate graphical
summaries. Four graphs will appear in succession ending with a graphical summary of the 2005
to 2015 natural gas prices. Select Editor > Layout Tool. Hit the > tab to add the 2011 WTI
price data to the layout panel and repeat this process to add the remaining two graphical
summaries. Select Finish and right click in the “grey” area in the upper right portion of the
graph. Click Edit Graph Region > Custom and select a neutral background color prior to
clicking OK. You can save the graphical summary by selecting File > Save Graph As, selecting
an appropriate destination and file name, and clicking on the save button. Alternatively, you can
paste this graph into a Word document by selecting Edit > Copy Graph and pasting the graph
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into the Word document you are using to complete your assignment. The only problem with
copying the graph and pasting it into a document is that the histograms are small ones and the
statistics are barely readable. You can go back to your graphical summary in MINITAB, select
Editor > Add > Title, gave the graphical summary the title Exhibit #1, and select File > Print
Graph > OK. This will gave you a larger, more readable graph that you can reference in the text
of your report (and append to the end of your report). If you save your graphical summary, you
should feel comfortable that you can go back later and edit the appearance of your graphical
summary (if you feel this is necessary).
The graphical summaries in MINITAB often seem like “overkill” - and they are, to some extent.
You are probably better off generating just the text statistics as described on the preceding page.
If you do produce a graph, you should probably save it as you produce and edit it (this
may not be necessary if you are simply pasting all your graphs into a text file). If you are
working on a number of graphs in sequence, you may find that you have too many
graph windows open, which is confusing, and may prevent the construction of
additional graphs. The Window > Close All Graphs is a useful command if you ever
find yourself in this position.
If you haven’t availed yourself of the Graphical Summary option in the first question
(which you hopefully haven’t), you will have to create four histograms in question #2.
You can do this by following the following command sequence:
Graph > Histogram > Simple > OK > select column C2 (the 2005 to 2015 Brent oil
prices) so that it appears in the Graph Variables: box > OK.
Tidy up the histogram by right-clicking on the background, selecting Edit Figure
Region > Custom Fill Pattern and selecting a neutral background color. Select Custom
Borders and Fill Lines and select None. Double-clicking on the title will allow you to
edit the title (I used Exhibit #2). Clicking Editor > Add > Subtitle allows you to add a
subtitle to your graph (I used Monthly Average Brent Oil Price 2005 to 2015). Clicking
Editor > Add > Gridlines allows you to add some horizontal (Y major and Y minor)
gridlines. I find that I have to edit the gridlines to make them more visible. Right click on
a gridline and select Edit Y gridlines > Custom > select the third-darkest shade of black
> OK (you will have to do this for both the major and minor gridlines). Double-clicking
on the Y-axis label allows you to edit this label. Double-clicking on the X-axis label
allows you to edit this label. Double-clicking on the bars in your histogram allows you to
change their appearance (I used downward-sloping lines and a grey background). The
default “binning” employs midpoints, which are quite unattractive. I double-clicked on
the oil prices, and chose tick positions at 35, 45, 55 … and 135. I clicked the “binning”
tab and selected cut points (upper and lower limits) rather than midpoints. I also
re-defined the cut point positions so that they were identical to my tick positions.
Selecting Editor > Add > Annotation > Graph Annotation Tools will add some graph
annotation tools to the menu bar (if they aren’t already displayed). Clicking on the “T”
button will low you to annotate your graph (and I added the sample size).
13
Once again, you can save the histogram by selecting File > Save Graph As, selecting an
appropriate destination and file name, and clicking on the save button. Alternatively,
you can paste the histogram into a Word document by selecting Edit > Copy Graph and
pasting the graph into the document you are using to complete this portion of the
assignment.
An alternative method for creating the required histograms, which I don’t recommend, is as
follows:
Graph > Histogram > Simple > OK > select columns C2, C3, C4 and C5 so that they appear
in the Graph Variables: box > Multiple Graphs > select In Separate Panels of the Same
Graph > Select Same Y > OK > OK.
Tidy up the histograms by right-clicking on the background, selecting Edit Figure Region >
Custom and selecting a neutral background color. Double-clicking on the title will allow you to
edit the title. Clicking Editor > Add > Subtitle allows you to add a subtitle to your graph.
Clicking Editor > Add > Gridlines allows you to add some horizontal (Y major and Y minor)
gridlines. Double-clicking on the Y-axis label allows you to edit this label. Double-clicking on one
of the histograms and selecting a custom fill pattern allows you to change the appearance of the
bars in your graph.
You can save the histograms by selecting File > Save Graph As, selecting an appropriate
destination and file name, and clicking on the save button. Alternatively, you can paste the
histograms into a Word document by selecting Edit > Copy Graph and pasting the graph into
the document you are using to complete your assignment.
To generate the stem-and-leaf diagrams in question #4, choose Graph >
Stem-and-Leaf > select columns C6 and C7 so that they appear in the Variables: box >
OK. Highlight the two stem-and-leaf diagrams that appear in the Session window, select
Edit > Copy and paste the stem-and-leaf diagrams into your WORD document. I
decided that I would go into my Word document at a later point and tidy up the
stem-and-leaf diagrams using a border.
To produce the box plot required in question #5 - and you should re-do these box plots
even if you’ve already produced them as part of the graphical summaries in the first
question - follow the following sequence of commands:
Graph > Boxplot > Simple > OK > select columns C6 and C7 so that they appear in the
Graph Variables: box > Multiple Graphs > select In Separate Panels of the Same
Graph and Same Y > OK > select Scale > Select Gridlines> select Y major and Y minor
ticks > OK > OK
I edited my multiple box plot prior to saving it. I removed the grey background color,
and graph border, changed the appearance of the inter-quartile range boxes, edited the
title and added a subtitle. If you don’t like the look of the labels above the box plots, you
need to change the column names in the MINITAB worksheet. If you re-name the
appropriate columns in the worksheet - which I didn’t - you can select Editor > Update
> Update Graph Now to update your box plot.
14
Save your box plot by selecting File > Save Graph As > entering the appropriate
location and file name, and clicking the Save button. Alternatively, you can select Edit >
Copy Graph and then paste the graph into your Word document.
The coefficient of variation required in question #6 can be generated using the Stat >
Basic Statistics > Display Descriptive Statistics command described previously. I
double-clicked on all but the first column so that the six columns appeared in the
Variables: box, I clicked the Statistics tab, I selected Mean, Standard deviation,
Coefficient of variation and N nonmissing, de-selected the other statistics and clicked
OK twice. The six coefficients of variation appeared in the MINITAB session window
and I highlighted and copied the text output and pasted it into my answer key.
In question #7, you are asked to examine the 2005 to 2015 month-end stock prices for
Methanex and Encana. The mean stock prices and standard deviation of the stock prices
were previously determined in question #3. You will now have to sort the data to finish
the question. Before sorting the grades I labeled column 8 in my worksheet “MX Sorted”
and column 9 “EN Sorted”.
The 2005 to 2015 month-end Methanex stock prices can be sorted using the following
sequence of commands:
Data > Sort > Double-click on C6 so that it appears in the first Columns to sort by box >
Select Specified Columns and then C6 > Specify C8 as the Storage location > OK
The sorted grades will appear in column C8 of your MINITAB worksheet. If you want
to print off the sorted returns - which you should do - you can use the Data > Display
Data feature in MINITAB. Double-click on the column(s) of data you want displayed
and click OK. The sorted data will appear in the Session window and it can then be
copied to your Word document. You may wish to save your modified worksheet by
utilizing the File > Save Current Worksheet As command. If you do modify your
worksheet, I suggest you save it with a different file name to distinguish it from the
original worksheet.
The best way to answer question #8 is to create normal plots of the 2005 to 2015
commodity prices. You can do this by executing the following series of commands in
MINITAB:
Stat > Basic Statistics > Normality Test > Double-click on C2 (the 2005 to 2015 Brent
crude prices) so that it appears in the Variable: box > OK. An Anderson-Darling
normality plot will be created, which you can copy and paste into your Word document.
Like the other graphs that you’ve created, this graph can be edited to improve its
appearance. The sample size, mean and standard deviation are reported in a legend in
the upper right-hand corner of the graph. You are also given the value of the
Anderson-Darling statistic and the so-called “p-value” of the test. A p-value that is
greater than 0.05 indicates that the grades have been drawn from a normal (or
bell-shaped) population. If you are interested, normality tests are discussed on pages 613
to 616 of your statistics text book (and in the MINITAB Help menu).
代写 BUSINESS 111 STATISTICS I
15
The scatter graph required in question #9 can be created using the following series of
commands:
Graph > Scatterplot > Simple > Double-click C2 (the Brent crude prices) so that it
appears in the Y variables box and double-click C2 (the WTI crude prices) so that it
appears in the X Variables box > Scale > Gridlines > Select all four boxes > OK > OK.
These commands will generate a basic scatter plot that you can edit as you see fit. Note
that there is really no dependent variable in this instance - there is unlikely to be a causal
relationship between the two sets of crude prices.
You are asked in question #10 to modify the preceding scatter graph. You can do this by
executing the following series of commands:
Editor > Add > Data Display > select Connect line > OK.
Position your cursor over one of the blue connect lines and right click. Select Edit
Connect Line > Options > select Worksheet connection order > OK. If you position
your cursor over an individual symbol, you can identify the symbol by its row in the
worksheet (and thus its monthly time period).
The scatter graph in question #11 can be produced in a similar manner. You can display
the best fitting line through the scatter of points by choosing the Editor > Add >
Regression Fit series of commands, selecting a Linear or Quadratic model and choosing
OK.
The two scatter graphs required in question #12 will show quite different results. As in
question #10, you may be able to better trace the relationship between the stock price
and the natural gas price if you add a regression fit to your scatter graph. Question #13
asks you to produce yet another scatter graph.
At some point, you will have to stop having fun with MINITAB. If your graphs have all
been saved, the latest version of your worksheet has been saved, and you've copied and
pasted everything you need in the MINITAB session window into your word
processing file, then it's time to bid adieu. Choose File > Exit. There should be no need
to save the project file, as long as all your graphs, your modified worksheet, and your
text output have been saved previously. If you're in doubt, save the project on to a
storage device, but be aware that it may eat up quite a bit of disk space (particularly if
you’ve generated a large number of graphs).
