Levered beta measures the risk of a firm with debt and equity in its capital structure to the volatility of the market. A key determinant of beta is leverage, which measures the level of a company’s debt to its equity. So, a publicly traded security's levered beta measures the sensitivity of that security's tendency to perform in relation to the overall market. A levered beta greater than positive 1 or less than negative 1 means that it has greater volatility than the market. A levered beta between negative 1 and positive 1 has less volatility than the market.