So a stock or fund with a beta of 1.5 would be 50 percent more volatile than the market. That means you could expect it to go up 50 percent more when the market goes up and down 50 percent more when the market goes down. Likewise, a fund with a beta of .75 is less volatile than the market. In an up market, you can expect this stock to gain 25 percent less than the overall market. In a down market, it'll lose 25 percent less.
Betas go in and out of favor.
They are certainly not the key factor when choosing a stock or mutual fund. But betas can be an interesting piece of information for those thinking about how to measure investment risk. My husband and I have written wills. Still, if something happened to either of us, I'm not sure we'd know where to find all our papers. My husband and I have wills, too.