Discover the differences between standard deviation and variance, two essential metrics for investors to assess volatility and risk in financial data.

Marshall Hargrave is a stock analyst and writer with 10+ years of experience covering stocks and markets, as well as analyzing and valuing companies. Dr. JeFreda R. Brown is a financial consultant, ...

Standard deviation is a measurement of variation within a set of data points relative to the dataset’s mean average. A higher standard deviation indicates greater variability, while a lower standard ...

An asset's standard deviation tells you how much its returns vary from its average. You can quickly calculate or look up the standard deviation of different assets. A high standard deviation can ...

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Rate of return and standard deviation are two of the most useful statistical concepts in business. These two figures will tell you whether a business project is worth the investment and trouble, given ...

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 ...