This chart shows Volatility for Fidelity National Information Services, defined to be the price range as a portion of the average price:
For instance, on 2/18/2011 the average price was 31.95 with a range of 0.55, indicating a Daily Volatility of 1.7%. The Daily Volatility is obtained by dividing the daily range by the daily average. A longer Volatility period such as Weekly Volatility is obtained by dividing the weekly price range by the weekly mean price. This is a different concept from the weekly average of daily volatility.
The red plot shows the actual price. Volatility, as measured through various intervals, ( Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Quarterly) is plotted according to color.
Investors often make a distinction between the concept of Volatility, and the concept of Risk. Academics define them to be exactly equivalent, but as can be seen here, there is good reason to distinguish between the levels of volatility or risk experienced across different time frames. Average Daily Volatility over the history of FIS has been 2% in contrast to the Average Quarterly Volatility of 21%.
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