Skip to content

Matched moments and different loss tails

A finite rare-loss model and a matched normal model can share moments while giving different tail summaries.

On this page

Define the original finite model

Loss is zero with probability 99% and 100 with probability 1%. Its mean is 1 and variance 99, so dispersion is √99. Using the lower cumulative 99% quantile gives VaR zero; exact worst-1% ES is 100.

Specify a separate matched law

A normal loss model with mean 1 and dispersion √99 has the same first two moments but a different shape and unbounded support. Its 99% VaR is approximately 24.146869 and ES approximately 27.518547.

Read the model distinction

Original matched-moment comparison
LawMeanVariance99% VaR99% ES
Finite 0/100 losses1990100
Normal with matched moments19924.14686927.518547

Avoid a universal direction claim

Here the normal threshold exceeds the finite lower quantile while its ES is smaller. The example does not prove normal models always understate or overstate every tail measure. It proves that moments alone do not determine the requested tail calculation.

Further references