standard deviation

standard deviation definition - business

standard deviation

A statistical measure of the variability of a distribution. An analyst may wish to calculate the standard deviation of historical returns on a stock or a portfolio as a measure of the investment's riskiness. The higher the standard deviation of an investment's returns, the greater the relative riskiness in the amount of return. See also risk, variance 1.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Business Terms Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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