[R] Factor Analysis

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006, Krish Krishnan wrote:

> I am very new to factor analysis as well as R.  I am trying to run a 
> factor analysis on the residual returns on common stock (residual to 
> some model) and trying to determine if there are any strong factors 
> remaining.  After running factanal, I can obtain the factor loadings but 
> how do I get the values of the factor returns themselves?  In other 
> words if the relationship is
>
> r = lambda * f
>
> I prrovide r, factanal estimates the lambdas (factor loadings).  But how do I get the
> f values? Am I looking at this too much from a multivariate regression angle?

Please consult the help page.  The model has an error term.  I don't know
what you mean by 'r': are these correlations or 'x'?

I think you are asking for the scores, which factanal optionally provides.

It is not clear from your description if PCA would not be more 
appropriate.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595