Skewness and kurtosis Skewness and kurtosis are two statistic | Morning Star Research, Training and Consultancy

Skewness and kurtosis
Skewness and kurtosis are two statistical measures used to describe the shape of a distribution.

Skewness refers to the degree of asymmetry in a distribution. A distribution with a long tail on the positive side (i.e., right-skewed) has a positive skewness, while a distribution with a long tail on the negative side (i.e., left-skewed) has a negative skewness. A perfectly symmetrical distribution (i.e., with no skewness) has a skewness of zero.

Kurtosis, on the other hand, refers to the degree of peakedness or flatness in a distribution. A distribution with a high peak and heavy tails (i.e., more extreme values) has a positive kurtosis, while a distribution with a low peak and light tails (i.e., fewer extreme values) has a negative kurtosis. A perfectly normal distribution (i.e., with no excess kurtosis) has a kurtosis of zero.