You can find comparative information in publications at the library. The beta of the market is 1. A fund with a 1.10 beta has greater risk than the market in general. It is expected to perform 10 percent better than the market in up markets and 10 percent worse in down markets. A fund with a 0.50 beta performs half as well as the market in up markets and but only half as poorly in down markets.
Higher betas represent riskier investments.
This is a comparison of a fund's risk level relative to other funds in its class. If a fund is rated 1.35, this means the fund has had more months of negative returns than other funds with the same investment objectives. Conversely, a fund with a 0.73 score would indicate that the risk of low returns was 27 percent less than the average fund in a similar category. This type of data is based on what happened in the past. In order to clear your crystal ball for the future, you'll need to study market indicators extensively.