The Skinny on Options: Abstract Applications - September 21, 2020 - Leptokurtic Distributions


Sep 21 2020 12 mins   7
As quantitative traders, we lean heavily on the statistical moments of a distribution, such as its mean, standard deviation, [skew,](https://www.tastytrade.com/tt/shows/the-skinny-on-options-abstract-applications/episodes/downside-tail-risk-06-11-2018 ) and kurtosis. And we have already seen that with positive kurtosis and leptokurtic distributions, we will observe a greater number of extreme observations than we would have expected. But interestingly, another consequence of a leptokurtic distribution is that most of the observations will be more tightly clustered around the mean than they would have otherwise been. This is incredibly [advantageous for the premium seller.](https://www.tastytrade.com/tt/shows/from-theory-to-practice/episodes/the-timeless-sale-of-premium-09-07-2016 )