We argue against the view that it is mostly the peaks of the empirical densities of stock returns (and of other risky returns as well) that set such data aside from ‘normal’ variables. We show that peaks depend on sample size and on the way returns are standardized, and that for given data...

Bivariate mixture models have been used to explain the stochastic behavior of daily price changes and trading volume on fmancial markets. In this class of models price changes and volume follow a mixture of bivariate distributions with the unobservable number of price relevant information...