Pearson’s system of continuous probability distributions is used herein to analyse return distributions of the shares in all companies listed on the Italian stock exchange. Results show that when finite time periods are examined, the type IV distribution describes the behaviour of almost all returns on stocks. The occasional exceptions to this rule appear to be linked only with the occurrence of extraordinary events in the life of a company. When an infinite time horizon is assumed, the results do not reject the hypothesis that the distributions are of type VII, which is a special, symmetrical and hyperkurtotical case of type IV distribution that subsumes the Student's t and the Cauchy distributions, and is easier to deal with in practice
Use of the Pearson System of Frequency Curves for the Analysis of Stock Return Distributions: Evidence and Implications for the Italian Market
PIZZUTILO, FABIO
2012-01-01
Abstract
Pearson’s system of continuous probability distributions is used herein to analyse return distributions of the shares in all companies listed on the Italian stock exchange. Results show that when finite time periods are examined, the type IV distribution describes the behaviour of almost all returns on stocks. The occasional exceptions to this rule appear to be linked only with the occurrence of extraordinary events in the life of a company. When an infinite time horizon is assumed, the results do not reject the hypothesis that the distributions are of type VII, which is a special, symmetrical and hyperkurtotical case of type IV distribution that subsumes the Student's t and the Cauchy distributions, and is easier to deal with in practiceI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
