Know When Your Risk Is Rising
Volatility spikes before crashes. In 2020, 2022, and 2008, portfolio volatility surged weeks before the worst declines. Tracking your volatility gives you an early warning signal — time to review, reduce risk, or simply stay calm with eyes open.
Guardfolio calculates your 30-day rolling portfolio volatility across all accounts and sends a real-time alert when it rises significantly above your baseline.
Track My Portfolio Volatility →Volatility Reference Guide
Portfolio Volatility Benchmarks
When to Worry About Volatility
A single number isn't the concern — the change is. When your portfolio's 30-day volatility doubles from its baseline in a short period, it's a signal that market conditions or your positions have shifted.
Guardfolio tracks your personal baseline and alerts you to meaningful spikes — not just market noise.
Volatility vs. Drawdown — What's the Difference?
Volatility measures how much your portfolio fluctuates up and down on a daily basis. High volatility means big swings in both directions.
Drawdown measures how far your portfolio has fallen from its peak. A highly volatile portfolio that keeps going up has high volatility but no drawdown. A portfolio that slowly declines has low volatility but steady drawdown.
Both matter. Guardfolio tracks both — volatility as a leading indicator of risk, and drawdown as a real-time measure of loss from peak.
30-Day Volatility as an Early Warning
The 30-day rolling volatility is the most useful timeframe for retail investors. It's long enough to filter out daily noise, short enough to respond to changing market conditions. When this number rises sharply, it often precedes increased correlation breakdowns, sector rotations, and portfolio stress.
Combined with concentration risk monitoring and correlation analysis, volatility tracking gives you a complete picture of your portfolio's risk profile at any moment.