Forecasting Crude Oil Price Volatility: A Comparative Study of ARIMA, GARCH, and Hybrid Machine Learning Models

Predicting the volatility of crude oil prices is of crucial significance, yet it poses challenges because of the intricate interaction process between geopolitical factors and economic factors. In this study, a systematic and comparative analysis is carried out on traditional econometric models and modern machine-learning models for the volatility of WTI crude oil. This study starts by making use of ARIMA and GARCH-family models (including GARCH and APGARCH) to capture the linear patterns and the asymmetric volatility clustering phenomenon. In order to deal with the nonlinear limitations of these parametric models, this study then puts forward a brand-new hybrid framework that combines the APGARCH model with an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). By using the WTI spot price data, the empirical results of this paper show the better performance of the hybrid approach. Specifically speaking, the APGARCH-ANN model reduces the forecast errors by more than 80% when it comes to RMSE in comparison with the standalone APGARCH model. This notable improvement emphasizes the synergy that exists between the econometric feature extraction process and the machine learning’s ability to perform nonlinear approximation. The findings offer a robust and advanced forecasting tool for energy firms as well as financial institutions, which can enhance the risk management process and the strategic decision - making process when facing the volatile oil markets.