An asset's standard deviation tells you how much its returns vary from its average. You can quickly calculate or look up the standard deviation of different assets. A high standard deviation can ...

Investors often use standard deviation to quantify asset volatility. You can calculate standard deviation of an asset in a spreadsheet with a series of daily closing values. Standard deviation ...

But first, here's a look at the formula for calculating annualized volatility. Annualized volatility = standard deviation (volatility) multiplied by the square root of the periods in the year.