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Weight decay

As explained in Time Series Forecasting Using Foundation Models

L2 regularization is a penalty method that discourages large model weights by adding their squared magnitudes to the optimization objective.

Weight decay is an L2 regularization technique that discourages large model weights by adding their squared magnitudes to the optimization objective. section 7.2.3

In the forecasting workflow, this idea appears through ridge regression, which estimates how exogenous features contribute to a TimesFM forecast. The implementation exposes a ridge setting alongside the covariate forecast mode. section 7.2.3

Configuring the ridge setting

A covariate forecast uses xreg_mode="xreg + timesfm" and explicitly passes ridge=0.0, making the regularization setting visible in the prediction call.

How Time Series Forecasting Using Foundation Models covers it

How deep it goes
Defines the L2 penalty and shows a ridge parameter, but stops short of deriving its optimization behavior.
Examples
Demonstrates the setting through a TimesFM covariate forecast configured with ridge=0.0.
What you can do after
Operate TimesFM's covariate forecast path by supplying a ridge setting alongside exogenous-feature inputs.
How it connects
Connects weight decay with L2 regularization, ridge regression, exogenous features, and time-series forecasting.

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This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Time Series Forecasting Using Foundation Models. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.