Standard deviation is a metric that shows the variability of a security’s returns over time. It can be used to gauge volatility based on past performance and compare a future return to past returns.

Standard deviation is a common statistical measurement and is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as: ‘A quantity expressing by how much the members of a group differ from the mean value for the group.’ In ...

Charlene Rhinehart is a CPA , CFE, chair of an Illinois CPA Society committee, and has a degree in accounting and finance from DePaul University. Vikki Velasquez is a researcher and writer who has ...

Caroline Banton has 6+ years of experience as a writer of business and finance articles. She also writes biographies for Story Terrace. Chip Stapleton is a Series 7 and Series 66 license holder, CFA ...

Standard deviation is a measurement of market volatility. Learn how investors use standard deviation in the MoneySense Glossary. This article is 1 year old. Some details may be outdated. Standard ...

In response to my article, Is the Stock Market Too Concentrated?, which relied upon standard-deviation calculations to assess investment risk, a reader wrote: “My problem [with your argument] is ...