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Volatility

How much and how quickly a price moves up and down.

A price that swings by several percent on ordinary days is highly volatile; one that barely moves has low volatility. Single stocks are usually more volatile than broad funds, and broad stock funds more than government bonds.

Volatility is not the same as loss: a price that falls and recovers costs nothing to someone who did not sell. It becomes a loss when you have to sell at a low.

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