Raw Beta

The unmodified slope from regressing a stock’s returns against an index. Meaningless without saying which index and over what window: the same company can print a defensive beta against one benchmark and a cyclical one against another, purely because the index compositions differ. A single regression beta also carries a wide standard error, which is the argument for building one bottom-up instead. Work through it interactively in the Beta Refresher lab at /labs/beta.