Glossary

V

Venture Capital Fund

A limited company was formed to provide new industries with venture or risk capital.

Vertical integration

The mechanism by which a business entity acquires other entities (could be suppliers or customers) above or below it in the supply chain.

Volatility

Volatility is the variability of an investment's returns. It is an acceptable substitute for risk; the greater the volatility, the greater the risk that an investment will not turn out as hoped because, at the time it needs to be cashed in, its market price is on the downward trend of a bounce. The concern is that future volatility is difficult to predict, and past volatility measures can themselves be unpredictable, depending on how often (e.g. weekly or monthly) returns are calculated and how long.Bringing future volatility expectations into predictive models is therefore of limited use, but resorting to the use of past volatility rates is equally limited.