Free Portfolio Beta Calculator
Upload your brokerage CSV and measure how sensitive your portfolio is to the S&P 500, VT all-world index, BTC, or any benchmark. Get beta, Jensen's alpha, R², tracking error, and bull-vs-bear beta asymmetry.
What Is Portfolio Beta?
Beta measures how your portfolio moves relative to a benchmark. It's the slope of the regression line when you plot your daily returns against the benchmark's daily returns. A beta of 1.0 means you move in lockstep with the benchmark. A beta of 1.5 means you amplify benchmark moves by 50% in either direction. A beta of 0.5 means you experience only half the benchmark's moves.
Beta is the single most important metric for understanding your portfolio's systematic risk — the risk you can't diversify away by holding more stocks. It's the foundation of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and is built into alpha, Treynor ratio, and information ratio calculations.
β = Cov(Rportfolio, Rbenchmark) / Var(Rbenchmark)
Covariance of portfolio and benchmark returns divided by variance of benchmark returns
How to Interpret Your Beta
| Beta | Interpretation | Typical Portfolios |
|---|---|---|
| < 0 | Moves opposite to benchmark | Inverse ETFs, short positions, gold during equity crashes |
| 0 – 0.3 | Largely independent of benchmark | Cash-heavy, market-neutral hedge funds, uncorrelated assets |
| 0.3 – 0.7 | Significantly less volatile than benchmark | Bond-heavy, utilities, defensive sectors |
| 0.7 – 1.2 | Roughly market-like behavior | Diversified equity portfolios, broad index funds, 60/40 allocations |
| 1.2 – 1.8 | Amplifies market moves | Growth-heavy, tech-focused, small-cap-heavy portfolios |
| > 1.8 | Extreme amplification | Leveraged ETFs, single-stock concentration, speculative names, most crypto portfolios vs S&P |
Beta alone doesn't tell you if a portfolio is good. A beta-1.5 portfolio that delivered 20% annualized vs an 8% benchmark is better than a beta-0.8 portfolio that delivered 6%. What matters is beta + alpha together: alpha measures the excess return you earned after removing the benchmark's contribution.
Compare Against Multiple Benchmarks
Your portfolio's beta depends entirely on which benchmark you measure it against. Foliolytic computes beta against every major benchmark automatically:
- SPY — S&P 500. The default for US equity portfolios.
- VT — Vanguard Total World Stock. Better benchmark for globally diversified investors.
- QQQ — Nasdaq 100. Appropriate if you hold mostly US tech.
- VTI — Total US Market. Broader than SPY (includes small and mid cap).
- AGG — US Aggregate Bonds. Shows your portfolio's sensitivity to rate moves.
- GLD — Gold. Useful for understanding inflation-hedge exposure.
- BTC — Bitcoin. Required for any crypto portfolio.
- Bitwise Crypto Index — For comparing altcoin portfolios to a diversified crypto basket.
Foliolytic also supports any custom ticker — if you want to know your beta vs NVDA or META, enter the ticker and it's computed from the same daily return data.
Measure Your Portfolio's Market Sensitivity
Upload a CSV. Get beta, alpha, R², tracking error, and 70+ metrics against every major benchmark. Free, no signup.
Open the AnalyzerFrequently Asked Questions
What is portfolio beta?
Portfolio beta measures how much your portfolio moves when the benchmark moves. A beta of 1.0 means your portfolio tracks the benchmark one-for-one. A beta of 1.5 means your portfolio moves 50% more than the benchmark in either direction — amplified volatility. A beta of 0.7 means you move 30% less than the benchmark — a defensive profile. Negative beta means you move opposite to the benchmark, which is rare but possible for inverse ETFs or gold during equity sell-offs.
How is portfolio beta calculated?
Beta is calculated as the covariance of your portfolio's daily returns with the benchmark's daily returns, divided by the benchmark's variance. Mathematically: β = Cov(R_portfolio, R_benchmark) / Var(R_benchmark). Foliolytic computes this from your actual transaction history, building a daily return series for your portfolio and regressing it against the benchmark of your choice.
What is a good portfolio beta?
There is no universally "good" beta — it depends on your risk tolerance. A beta of 1.0 means you accept full market risk. Conservative investors target 0.7–0.9 (less volatility than the market at the cost of some return). Aggressive investors sometimes accept 1.2–1.5 to amplify market moves. What matters more is whether your risk-adjusted return (alpha) is positive: if you have beta 1.5 but positive alpha, you're being compensated for the extra risk.
What benchmarks does Foliolytic support for beta?
SPY (S&P 500), VT (Vanguard Total World Stock), QQQ (Nasdaq 100), IWM (Russell 2000), VTI (Total US Market), AGG (US Aggregate Bonds), TLT (20+ Year Treasuries), GLD (Gold), BTC, ETH, and the Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index — plus any ticker with price history in Foliolytic's database (1,400+ stocks and 440+ cryptocurrencies). You can also enter a custom ticker to compare against a specific stock or ETF.
Can I have a different beta in bull vs bear markets?
Yes, and it often reveals important information. Foliolytic computes bull-market beta (using only days when the benchmark returned positively) and bear-market beta (using only negative benchmark days) separately. A portfolio with bull-beta of 1.2 and bear-beta of 0.7 has asymmetric exposure — it captures more upside than downside, which is exactly what active managers aim for. A portfolio with the opposite (bull-beta 0.7, bear-beta 1.2) is worse than linear market exposure.