Negative Weighted Averages | CAS
Added: 03/02/2015; Last Modified: 06/01/2023; Visits:4,505We are often asked about negative weighted averages and negative weight fields in CAS. Where the weight field is negative, the result you would get from a weighted average would be mathematically meaningless.
Take these examples of weighted average rate:
RATE
7.25
7
If each is weighted by 100. The wtd avg rate would be 7.125
If you then change the weight of the second number to -50, the wtd avg becomes 7.5, which is higher than both numbers.
You can use negative values for the first field (RATE). Also, you can use the absval function in CAS to convert negative weights to positive weights if that makes sense based on your data set.