A fuzzy local trend transform based fuzzy time series forecasting model is proposed to improve practicability and forecast accuracy by providing forecast of local trend variation based on the linguistic representation of ratios between any two consecutive points in original time series. Local trend variation satisfies a wide range of real applications for the forecast, the practicability is thereby improved. Specific values based on the forecasted local trend variations that reflect fluctuations in historical data are calculated accordingly to enhance the forecast accuracy. Compared with conventional models, the proposed model is validated by about 50% and 60% average improvement in terms of MLTE (mean local trend error) and RMSE (root mean squared error), respectively, for three typical forecasting applications. The MLTE results indicate that the proposed model outperforms conventional models significantly in reflecting fluctuations in historical data, and the improved RMSE results confirm an inherent enhancement of reflection of fluctuations in historical data and hence a better forecast accuracy. The potential applications of the proposed fuzzy local trend transform include time series clustering, classification, and indexing
