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what determines stock volatility

by Bernardo Durgan II Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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What Is the Best Measure of Stock Price Volatility?

  • Standard Deviation. The primary measure of volatility used by traders and analysts is the standard deviation. This...
  • Maximum Drawdown. Another way of dealing with volatility is to find the maximum drawdown. The maximum drawdown is...
  • Beta. Beta measures a security's volatility relative to that of the broader market. A...

Volatility is often calculated using variance and standard deviation. The standard deviation is the square root of the variance. For simplicity, let's assume we have monthly stock closing prices of $1 through $10. For example, month one is $1, month two is $2, and so on.

Full Answer

What is the best measure of stock price volatility?

What Is the Best Measure of Stock Price Volatility?

  • Standard Deviation. The primary measure of volatility used by traders and analysts is the standard deviation. ...
  • Maximum Drawdown. Another way of dealing with volatility is to find the maximum drawdown. ...
  • Beta. Beta measures a security’s volatility relative to that of the broader market. ...

How do you calculate market volatility?

  • Check your asset allocation. During a downturn is not usually the time to make changes to your investment portfolio, but if a slight tick downward is causing excessive stress, it ...
  • Consider the bucket strategy. ...
  • Remove yourself from easy access. ...
  • Make a plan for when to check your accounts. ...
  • Keep perspective of the losses. ...

What does high volatility mean in stocks?

What is the best volatility indicator?

  • Bollinger Bands. Bollinger Bands are a measurement that goes two standard deviations (about 95 percent) above and below the 20-day moving average.
  • Average True Range. The average true range (ATR) uses three simple calculations.
  • Keltner Channel.
  • Parabolic Stop and Reverse.
  • Momentum Indicator in MT4.
  • Volatility Squeeze.

What are the highest volatility stocks?

Those criteria will generate a list of stocks that:

  • Typically move more than 5% per day, based on a 50-day average—you can use any timeframe you want, but a 50-day average or more will help you find stocks that ...
  • Are priced between $10 and $100—you can alter those amounts to suit your preferences
  • Had average daily trading volume of more than 4 million during the past 30 days

More items...

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What makes a stock volatile?

What Causes Market Volatility? Stock market volatility is largely caused by uncertainty, which can be influenced by interest rates tax changes, inflation rates, and other monetary policies but it is also affected by industry changes and national and global events.

What determines stock price volatility?

Volatility is determined either by using the standard deviation or beta. Standard deviation measures the amount of dispersion in a security's prices. Beta determines a security's volatility relative to that of the overall market. Beta can be calculated using regression analysis.

What affects stock volatility?

Factors Affecting Volatility Changes in inflation trends, plus industry and sector factors, can also influence the long-term stock market trends and volatility. For example, a major weather event in a key oil-producing area can trigger increased oil prices, which in turn spikes the price of oil-related stocks.

How do stocks choose high volatility?

Simple volatility criteria may include:Most Active by Share Volume.Most Advanced.Most Declined.Most Active by Dollar Volume.Additionally, parameters in the corresponding derivatives market (open interest, volume, put-call ratio, implied volatility, etc.)

What is the best volatility indicator?

Top 5 Volatility Indicators:Bollinger Bands:Keltner Channel:Donchian Channel:Average True Range (ATR):India VIX:

Is high or low volatility better?

What is volatility? Volatility is the rate at which the price of a stock increases or decreases over a particular period. Higher stock price volatility often means higher risk and helps an investor to estimate the fluctuations that may happen in the future.

What is the most volatile stock?

US stocks with the greatest volatilityTickerLastChg %AUVI D3.62USD−1.44%REV New D2.15USD14.97%CSCW Ltd. D0.1301USD15.95%HLGN D3.00USD25.31%31 more rows

How do you profit from volatility?

10 Ways to Profit Off Stock VolatilityStart Small. The saying 'go big or go home,' while inspirational, is not for beginning day traders. ... Forget those practice accounts. ... Be choosy. ... Don't be overconfident. ... Be emotionless. ... Keep a daily trading log. ... Stay focused. ... Trade only a couple stocks.More items...

Why are some stocks more volatile than others?

Key Takeaways. Some securities markets are more volatile than others, exhibiting large price swings in either direction over a period of time. Volatility in the market sectors has many causes, including investor emotions, depressed economic conditions, inflation, deflation, and bankruptcies of major industries.

How do day traders find stocks?

Day traders frequently use the trade volume index (TVI) to determine whether or not to buy into a stock. This index measures the amount of money flowing in and out of an asset.

What is a good volatility percentage?

The higher the standard deviation, the higher the variability in market returns. The graph below shows historical standard deviation of annualized monthly returns of large US company stocks, as measured by the S&P 500. Volatility averages around 15%, is often within a range of 10-20%, and rises and falls over time.

How do you know if a stock is good to day trade?

Day traders should select stocks that have ample liquidity, mid to high volatility, and group followers. Identifying the right stocks for intraday trading involves isolating the current market trend from any surrounding noise and then capitalizing on that trend.

What is volatility in securities?

Volatility is often measured as either the standard deviation or variance between returns from that same security or market index. In the securities markets, volatility is often associated with big swings in either direction.

How to measure volatility?

There are several ways to measure volatility, including beta coefficients, option pricing models, and standard deviations of returns. Volatile assets are often considered riskier than less volatile assets because the price is expected to be less predictable.

Why are options more volatile?

More volatile underlying assets will translate to higher options premiums because with volatility there is a greater probability that the options will end up in-the-money at expiration. Options traders try to predict an asset's future volatility, so the price of an option in the market reflects its implied volatility.

What does it mean when volatility is dropping?

If the historical volatility is dropping, on the other hand, it means any uncertainty has been eliminated, so things return to the way they were.

What is the beta of a stock?

One measure of the relative volatility of a particular stock to the market is its beta (β). A beta approximates the overall volatility of a security's returns against the returns of a relevant benchmark (usually the S&P 500 is used). For example, a stock with a beta value of 1.1 has historically moved 110% for every 100% move in the benchmark, based on price level. Conversely, a stock with a beta of .9 has historically moved 90% for every 100% move in the underlying index.

What does lower volatility mean?

A lower volatility means that a security's value does not fluctuate dramatically, and tends to be more steady. One way to measure an asset's variation is to quantify the daily returns (percent move on a daily basis) of the asset.

What is volatility in financials?

Volatility often refers to the amount of uncertainty or risk related to the size of changes in a security's value. A higher volatility means that a security's value can potentially be spread out over a larger range of values.

What is portfolio volatility?

Portfolio volatility is a measure of portfolio risk, meaning a portfolio's tendency to deviate from its mean return. Remember that a portfolio is made up of individual positions, each with their own volatility measures. These individual variations, when combined, create a single measure of portfolio volatility.

What is standard deviation in stock?

The standard deviation (volatility) of stock 1. The standard deviation of stock 2. The covariance, or relational movement, between the stock prices of stock 1 and stock 2. To calculate portfolio volatility, the logic underlying the equation is complicated, but the formula takes into account the weight of each stock in the portfolio, ...

Do stock prices fluctuate over time?

In actuality, stock prices and index values often have asymmetrical distributions and can stay unusually high or low for long periods of time. In addition, a stock's or index's volatility tends to change over time, which challenges the assumption of an unchanging statistical distribution of returns. While performing historical volatility ...

What is volatility in the stock market?

What is stock market volatility? Stock market volatility is a measure of how much the stock market's overall value fluctuates up and down. Beyond the market as a whole, individual stocks can be considered volatile as well. More specifically, you can calculate volatility by looking at how much an asset's price varies from its average price.

What is medium volatility?

Medium volatility is somewhere in between. An individual stock can also become more volatile around key events like quarterly earnings reports. Volatility is often associated with fear, which tends to rise during bear markets, stock market crashes, and other big downward moves.

What is the difference between beta and VIX?

Beta and the VIX. For individual stocks, volatility is often encapsulated in a metric called beta. Beta measures a stock's historical volatility relative to the S&P 500 index. A beta of more than one indicates that a stock has historically moved more than the S&P 500.

Why does the stock market pick up?

Stock market volatility can pick up when external events create uncertainty. For example, while the major stock indexes typically don't move by more than 1% in a single day, those indices routinely rose and fell by more than 5% each day during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Is volatility the same as risk?

It's important to note, though, that volatility and risk are not the same thing. For stock traders who look to buy low and sell high every trading day, volatility and risk are deeply intertwined. Volatility also matters for those who may need to sell their stocks soon, such as those close to retirement.

Is a blue chip stock more volatile than a tech stock?

Some stocks are more volatile than others. Shares of a large blue-chip company may not make very big price swings, while shares of a high-flying tech stock may do so often. That blue-chip stock is considered to have low volatility, while the tech stock has high volatility. Medium volatility is somewhere in between.

How to calculate volatility of a security?

The simplest approach to determine the volatility of a security is to calculate the standard deviation#N#Standard Deviation From a statistics standpoint, the standard deviation of a data set is a measure of the magnitude of deviations between values of the observations contained#N#of its prices over a period of time. This can be done by using the following steps: 1 Gather the security’s past prices. 2 Calculate the average price (mean) of the security’s past prices. 3 Determine the difference between each price in the set and the average price. 4 Square the differences from the previous step. 5 Sum the squared differences. 6 Divide the squared differences by the total number of prices in the set (find variance ). 7 Calculate the square root of the number obtained in the previous step.

What are the different types of volatility?

Types of Volatility. 1. Historical Volatility. This measures the fluctuations in the security’s prices in the past. It is used to predict the future movements of prices based on previous trends. However, it does not provide insights regarding the future trend or direction of the security’s price. 2.

What is beta in stock?

Beta The beta (β) of an investment security (i.e. a stock) is a measurement of its volatility of returns relative to the entire market. It is used as a measure of risk and is an integral part of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). A company with a higher beta has greater risk and also greater expected returns.

What is the VIX index?

VIX The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) created the VIX (CBOE Volatility Index) to measure the 30-day expected volatility of the US stock market, sometimes called the "fear index". The VIX is based on the prices of options on the S&P 500 Index.

What is the difference between a higher beta and a higher risk premium?

A company with a higher beta has greater risk and also greater expected returns. Market Risk Premium. Market Risk Premium The market risk premium is the additional return an investor expects from holding a risky market portfolio instead of risk-free assets.

What are the two types of options?

There are two types of options: calls and puts. US options can be exercised at any time. equal to the option’s current market price. Implied volatility is a key parameter in option pricing. It provides a forward-looking aspect on possible future price fluctuations.

Why is investment performance not distributed?

As a result, investors tend to experience abnormally high and low periods of performance.

What is heteroskedasticity in statistics?

Heteroskedasticity simply means that the variance of the sample investment performance data is not constant over time. As a result, standard deviation tends to fluctuate based on the length of the time period used to make the calculation, or the period of time selected to make the calculation.

What is volatility in stocks?

Volatility is a wide-ranging term, as there are different criteria, mathematical models, calculations and concepts applied to measure and assess volatility. Different traders may have their own criteria for volatile stocks. A few examples:

What is volatility based trade?

Volatility-based trades can be categorized into two streams: Currently Volatile: a stock that is currently showing high swings. Expected to be Volatile: a stock which is currently stable, but expected to break out in the near future with high volatility.

Can active traders create their own stock screener?

Active traders can explore building their own quick app, program or interface to get their own desired volatility stock screeners. Although it may need considerable studying to set up, and require a lot of trial and error, a customized tool or platform can go a long way, facilitating a lot of tasks for traders.

What is the VIX index?

The VIX, often referred to as the "fear index," is calculated in real time by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). The most significant words in that description are expected and the next 30 days.

Is the VIX based on historical data?

The predictive nature of the VIX makes it a measure of implied volatility, not one that is based on historical data or statistical analysis. The time period of the prediction also narrows the outlook to the near term.

Is VIX a leading indicator?

The VIX is considered a reflection of investor sentiment, but one must remember that it is supposed to be a leading indicator. In other words, it should not be construed as a sign of an immediate market movement.

Is the VIX a reflection of sentiment?

It's not perfect. The VIX is considered a reflection of investor sentiment and has in the past been a leading indicator of a dip in the S&P 500, but that relationship may have changed in recent times. For instance, in the three months between Aug. 8, 2017, and Nov. 8, 2017, the VIX was up 19%—seemingly suggesting anxiety ...

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Types of Volatility

Calculating Volatility

  • The simplest approach to determine the volatility of a security is to calculate the standard deviationof its prices over a period of time. This can be done by using the following steps: 1. Gather the security’s past prices. 2. Calculate the average price (mean) of the security’s past prices. 3. Determine the difference between each price in the set...
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Sample Calculation

  • You want to find out the volatility of the stock of ABC Corp. for the past four days. The stock prices are given below: 1. Day 1 – $10 2. Day 2 – $12 3. Day 3 – $9 4. Day 4 – $14 To calculate the volatility of the prices, we need to: 1. Find the average price:$10 + $12 + $9 + $14 / 4 = $11.25 2. Calculate the difference between each price and the average price: Day 1: 10 – 11.25 = -1.25 …
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Additional Resources

  • Thank you for reading CFI’s guide on Volatility. To continue learning and advancing your career, these additional resources will be helpful: 1. Guide to Beta in Finance 2. Market Risk Premium 3. Value at Risk (VAR) 4. VIX
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