Skewness and Kurtosis

[c] Measures of skewness and kurtosis

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Terms covered: Skewness, Sample skewness, Skewed distribution, Normal distribution, Mean, Mode, Median, Kurtosis, Excess kurtosis, Sample kurtosis, Leptokurtic distribution, Mesokurtic distribution, Platykurtic distribution

Test Your Understanding: Skewness & Kurtosis Values & Risk

1. A distribution has a skewness value of +0.8. This distribution is likely:

2. A distribution has an excess kurtosis of 1.5. This distribution is likely:

3. A normal distribution has a kurtosis of:

4. If a security’s return distribution exhibits significant negative skewness (e.g., skewness = -0.9), this suggests, compared to a normally distributed asset:

5. An investment with a leptokurtic return distribution (positive excess kurtosis) is generally considered: