Beta is a number that compares how much a stock's price moves relative to the overall market. A beta of 1 means the stock moves in line with the market. A beta above 1 means it swings more than the market, while a beta below 1 means it swings less.
If the market goes up 10 percent and a stock has a beta of 1.5, you would expect that stock to go up about 15 percent. If a different stock has a beta of 0.5, it would be expected to go up only about 5 percent when the market rises 10 percent.
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