The Long-term Fund Report provides a volatility rating or classification for each fund in the report.
Volatility is related to the variability in a fund's performance.
Financial advisors look at a fund's volatility as a key indicator of the risk associated with the fund. The chart shown below highlights how volatility, or average risk, varies considerably between different asset classes. Money Market funds are the least risky funds, while Metals and Resources funds are the most risky. In the Long-term Fund Report under the heading of Volatility, you will see an abbreviation of the fund's asset class followed by a volatility classification. Standard Deviation Standard deviation is used to measure the average variability of the returns for individual funds.