What is Beta?

Building a Low Beta Portfolio

 Excerpt:

Beta is kind of like volatility. It's simply a trailing measure of how a stock or portfolio moves in relation to stocks as a whole. "Beta is just a measure of the risk of a stock or your portfolio or a fund relative to the risk of the overall market."

For instance if the market gains 1%, a high-beta equity would be expected to rise more. The opposite is true for a down day, with high-beta stocks suffering more than their steady counterparts during down periods.

Comment: Example of Coke above with a Beta of .45