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## -*- texinfo -*-
## @deftypefn {} {@var{H} =} hurst (@var{x})
## Estimate the Hurst parameter of sample @var{x} via the rescaled range
## statistic.
##
## If @var{x} is a matrix, the parameter is estimated for every column.
## @end deftypefn

function H = hurst (x)

  if (nargin != 1)
    print_usage ();
  endif

  if (isscalar (x))
    error ("hurst: X must not be a scalar");
  elseif (isvector (x))
    x = x(:);  # always use column vector
  endif

  [xr, xc] = size (x);

  s = std (x);
  w = cumsum (x - mean (x));
  RS = (max (w) - min (w)) ./ s;
  H = log (RS) / log (xr);

endfunction