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>The median [...] just has a small advantage in that it will always map a real observation, so for discrete data you don't end up with things like "1.9 legs."
by zeteo 10y ago
>The median [...] just has a small advantage in that it will always map a real observation, so for discrete data you don't end up with things like "1.9 legs."
If you listen to someone like Taleb, the main advantage they mention for the median is that it's a more robust statistic. For fat-tailed distributions the average can jump all over as new data come in.
- smallnamespace 10y agoWhether ignoring the tails is an advantage or not depends very much on the situation. For example, geometric mean of returns is the right number to look at for stocks because you are indeed exposed to the tails.