Sample size

Sample size, often shown as the number of occurrences or years analyzed, is the count of historical instances behind a statistic. In seasonality, it tells a trader how many times a monthly or event-window pattern has actually been observed.

For a bullion trader, sample size is the first trust field. A strong-looking average return drawn from only a handful of years is far weaker evidence than the same return seen across many years, so occurrence count is checked before reading average return or win rate.

A short history can describe what has happened recently but cannot prove a repeated tendency. Thin samples should be labeled as orientation and downgraded to watch-only context rather than treated as a confirmed seasonal edge.