types of kurtosis, leptokurtic, mesokurtic, platykurtic

KURTOSIS

PEAKEDNESS OF A DISTRIBUTION

LEPTOKURTIC:  high and thin

MESOKURTIC:  normal in shape

PLATYKURTIC:  flat and spread out

•   KURTOSIS measures how peaked the histogram is

•   The KURTOSIS of a NORMAL DISTRIBUTION is 0

•   KURTOSIS characterizes the relative PEAKEDNESS or FLATNESS of a distribution compared to the normal distribution.

PLATYKURTIC

When the kurtosis < 0, the frequencies throughout the curve are

closer to be equal (i.e., the curve is more flat and wide). Thus, negative kurtosis indicates a relatively flat distribution.

LEPTOKURTIC

When the kurtosis > 0, there are high frequencies in only a small part of the curve (i.e, the curve is more peaked). Thus, positive kurtosis indicates a relatively peaked distribution

•   KURTOSIS is based on the size of a distribution's tails.

•   NEGATIVE kurtosis (PLATYKURTIC) - distributions with short tails

•   POSITIVE kurtosis (LEPTOKURTIC) - distributions with relatively long

tails

MESOKURTIC is distribution with normal tail (Normal Distribution); zero kurtosis.