volatility

UK/ˌvɒl.əˈtɪl.ə.ti/US/ˌvɑ.ləˈtɪl.ə.ti/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,313 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: volatilities

Volatility is a tendency to change suddenly and unpredictably. Market volatility.

In finance it is measured rather than described, and it is what most risk models are built on. The chemical sense came first and means how readily a liquid turns to vapour.

Definitions of volatility

1nounvolatilityA tendency to change suddenly and unpredictably.C1
“The volatility that autumn kept everybody out of the market.”

volatility is a tendency.

Where it comes from

Latin
volātilis — flying; swift; temporary; volatile
Middle French
volatile
English
volatile
English, today
volatility

Built from

volō · Latin — to fly

From volatile + -ity. volatile comes from Middle French volatile, from Latin volātilis (“flying; swift; temporary; volatile”), from volō (“to fly”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

volatility in the wild

Implied volatility, a forward-looking and subjective measure, differs from historical volatility because the latter is calculated from known past returns of a security.
Implied volatility
Implied volatility is also used as a predictor in models that forecast future realized volatility.
Implied volatility
Market risk is the risk of losses in positions arising from movements in market variables like prices and volatility.
Market risk
Euro Stoxx 50, etc.) prices or their implied volatility will change.
Market risk
Volatility risk is the risk of an adverse change of price, due to changes in the volatility of a factor affecting that price.
Volatility risk

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the volō family

voluntary voluntarily volatile

volatility — used about once every 41,009 pages · #14,313 · point at the bar for the others

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