- CFA Exams
- CFA Level I Exam
- Topic 1. Quantitative Methods
- Learning Module 3. Statistical Measures of Asset Returns
- Subject 3. Measures of Shape of a Distribution
CFA Practice Question
A distribution has a mean of 7 and a range of -100 to +50. The distribution is ______.
A. left skewed
B. defective
C. right skewed
Explanation: The range of values is larger to the left of the mean. Hence, the distribution is left-skewed.
User Contributed Comments 12
User | Comment |
---|---|
haarlemmer | Mean is influenced by the tail. |
chuong | Median = (-100+50)/2 = 25 Mean = 7 Median>mean ->Left skewed distribution |
melmilesxx | doesn't that equal -25 so median < mean?? |
rayrayrain | median is not (-100 + 50 )/2 = - 25 , in this case, median is greater than mean (7), and mode should be greater than median. |
joe3 | In this case, there should be more numbers between 7 to 50 than the numbers between -100 to 7, otherwise the mean will probably be a negative number. So it is left skewed distribution which has fewer,extreme numbers on the left side and more,small numbers on the right. |
Shelton | More # in (7,50) => Median > 7 => Negative / Left skewed |
bahodir | Since the mean is 7, more numbers to in the range (7;50), so that the mode is in this range. If mode > mean, the distribution is skewed to the left. |
motoloco | median is not (-100+50)/2 or something like this...median counts number of items no average... |
bikegeek | mean, median, mode. Keep them in alphabetical order and when you compare them, the signs will point to the skew... mean > median > mode.. right skew mean < median < mode... left skew |
gazelle | Thank you bikegeek |
Profache | "Skew" can be seen as the "Skinny" part of the distribution. Since the mean = 7 is closer to 50 than it is closer to -100, the "fat" part of the distribution is located more to the right side. And the skinny (skew) part of the distribution will be more to the left (negative). |
rjdelong | If this were normally distributed it would have median, mode, and mean all =-25 the middle bin in the histogram. However, the mean in this question is to the right of it (+7), so the hump (mode) must push even further to the right of that, which tells you Mean<Med<Mode. The arrows point Left so we have a left skew. |