A Discretized Approach to Flexibly Fit Generalized Lambda Distributions to Data

Abstract

This article presents a flexible approach to fit statistical distribution to data. It optimizes the bin-width of data histogram to find a suitable generalized lambda distribution. In addition to the default optimization, this approach provides additional flexibility akin to the concepts of loess and kernel smoothing, which allow the users to determine the amount of details they would like to smooth over the data. The approach presented in this article will allow users to visually compare and choose the parameters of generalized lambda distribution that best suit their purposes of study.