Awasome Volatiltiy References. In the stock market, increased volatility is often a sign of fear and uncertainty among investors. Investors and traders calculate the volatility of a security to assess past variations in the prices.

Strictly defined, volatility is a measure of dispersion around the mean or average return of a security. Increased volatility of the stock market is usually a sign that a market top or market bottom is at hand. Web volatility is a prediction of future price movement, which encompasses both losses and gains, while risk is solely a prediction of loss — and, the implication is, permanent loss.