How do you use beta for stocks?

How do investors use beta?

A security's beta is calculated by dividing the product of the covariance of the security's returns and the market's returns by the variance of the market's returns over a specified period. The beta calculation is used to help investors understand whether a stock moves in the same direction as the rest of the market.

Is a 1.5 beta good?

A beta of less than 1.0 indicates that the investment is less sensitive to the market, while a beta of more than 1.0 indicates that the investment is more sensitive to the market. Generally, the higher the correlation between the investment and the market (as measured by R-squared), the more meaningful is beta.

What's a good beta for a stock?

Stocks with a value greater than 1 are more volatile than the market (meaning they will generally go up more than the market goes up, and go down more than the market goes down). Stocks with a beta of less than 1 have a smoother ride as their moves are more muted than the market's.

What does a β of 1.3 mean?

The beta for a stock describes how much the stock's price moves compared to the market. If a stock has a beta above 1, it's more volatile than the overall market. For example, if an asset has a beta of 1.3, it's theoretically 30% more volatile than the market.

What is "Beta" [Stock Market Terms] + How to Use it for Trading Decisions

Is a higher beta better?

A stock that swings more than the market over time has a beta above 1.0. If a stock moves less than the market, the stock's beta is less than 1.0. High-beta stocks are supposed to be riskier but provide higher return potential; low-beta stocks pose less risk but also lower returns.

Is negative beta good?

Negative beta: A beta less than 0, which would indicate an inverse relation to the market, is possible but highly unlikely. Some investors argue that gold and gold stocks should have negative betas because they tend to do better when the stock market declines.

What does a stock beta of 1.5 mean?

Roughly speaking, a security with a beta of 1.5, will have move, on average, 1.5 times the market return. [More precisely, that stock's excess return (over and above a short-term money market rate) is expected to move 1.5 times the market excess return).]

How do I find high beta stocks?

Can beta of a stock be negative?

Yes, beta can be negative. To see how and why, consider what beta measures: the risk added by an investment to a well diversified portfolio. By that definition, any investment that when added to a portfolio, makes the overall risk of the portfolio go down, has a negative beta.

What is a good PE ratio?

So, what is a good PE ratio for a stock? A “good” P/E ratio isn't necessarily a high ratio or a low ratio on its own. The market average P/E ratio currently ranges from 20-25, so a higher PE above that could be considered bad, while a lower PE ratio could be considered better.

What does a beta of 0.8 mean?

If the stock is more volatile than the market, its beta will be more than 1, and if it is less volatile than the market, its beta will be less than 1. For example, a stock with a beta of 0.8 would be expected to return 80% as much as the overall market.

How reliable is beta?

The underlying reason that beta is ineffective as an indicator of risk, or the potential for long-term loss of capital, is that beta is simply a measure of share price volatility. The true risk associated with a company is a result of its business fundamentals.

What does a beta of 0.9 mean?

A beta that is greater than 1.0 means that the fund is more volatile than the benchmark index. A beta of less than 1.0 means that the fund is less volatile than the index. In theory, if the market goes up 10%, a fund with a beta of 1.0 should go up 10%; if the market drops 10%, the fund should drop by an equal amount.

Are high beta stocks good?

High beta stocks are those that are positively correlated with returns of the S&P 500, but at an amplified magnitude. Because of this amplification, these stocks tend to outperform in bull markets, but can greatly underperform in bear markets.

What is considered a high beta?

What are high-beta stocks? A high-beta stock, quite simply, is a stock that has been much more volatile than the index it's being measured against. A stock with a beta above 2 -- meaning that the stock will typically move twice as much as the market does -- is generally considered a high-beta stock.

What is a low risk beta?

A low beta value typically means that the stock is considered less risky, but will likely offer low returns as well. The higher the beta value, the more risk you take as an investor, but the higher your chances are of a big return as well.

What is a good alpha for a stock?

Defining Alpha

Alpha is also a measure of risk. An alpha of -15 means the investment was far too risky given the return. An alpha of zero suggests that an asset has earned a return commensurate with the risk. Alpha of greater than zero means an investment outperformed, after adjusting for volatility.

Can a stock have a zero beta?

A zero-beta portfolio is constructed to have zero systematic risk—a beta of zero. Beta measures an investment's sensitivity to a price movement of a specifically referenced market index.

What is a 5 year beta?

Beta (5 Year) A ratio that measures the risk or volatility of a company's share price in comparison to the market as a whole.

What does a beta of 0.5 mean?

For example, a beta of 0.5 implies that a stock's movements will theoretically be about 50% of the index's movements. A stock with a beta of more than one is more volatile than the overall index. For example, a beta of 2.0 implies that the stock will move twice as much as the market.