Beta Inquiries

Interestingly, we've received many inquiries recently for lists of stocks with the highest and lowest betas. 

Investors that think the market is due for a correction might short high beta stocks or stick with low beta stocks that are less correlated with the market as a whole.  Since high beta stocks are more volatile than the market, investors might buy them in hopes of receiving higher returns if they think the market is due to go higher.  For those not familiar with the term, beta measures the volatility of a security compared to the market as a whole (often times the S&P 500).  A stock with a beta of 1 moves directly inline with the S&P 500.  A stock with a beta less than 1 is less volatile than the market, and a stock with a beta greater than 1 is more volatile than the market. 

Below we list the 20 stocks in the Russell 1,000 that have the highest and lowest betas (compared to the S&P 500).