The return on a stock is the change in its market price plus any dividend payments made. Return is usually expressed as a percent of the beginning price. The figure shows a histogram of the distribution of monthly returns for the U.S. stock market over a 273-month period.

a. Describe the overall shape of the distribution of monthly returns.

b. What is the approximate center of this distribution?

c. Explain why you cannot find the exact value for the minimum return. Between what two values does it lie?

d. A return less than 0 means that stocks lost value in that month. About what percent of all months had returns less than 0?

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80 60 40 20 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 Monthly percent return on common stocks Number of months