• Portfolio variance is a measure of the overall risk of a portfolio and is the square of the portfolio’s standard deviation.

  • The portfolio variance takes into account the weights and variances of each asset in the portfolio, as well as their covariances.
  • The lower the correlation between securities in a portfolio, the lower the dispersion of the portfolio.
  • Portfolio variance (and standard deviation) define the risk axis of the effective frontier in modern portfolio theory (MPT).