Building a handrail for your deck may seem like a simple task. In many cases it is -- until the time arrives to figure out how to get the balusters or spindles evenly spaced along the handrail. Evenly spaced spindles improve the symmetry of the rails and lend a professional look to the project. But finding the right measuring formula may give the average home handyman pause.
R-squared is a statistical measurement that determines the proportion of a security's return, or the return on a specific portfolio of securities, that can be explained by variations in the stock market, as measured by a benchmark index.
R-squared measures how closely each change in the price of an asset is correlated to a benchmark. Beta measures how large those price changes are, in relation to a benchmark. Used together, R-squared and Beta give investors a thorough picture of the performance of asset managers. R=squared is a measure of the percentage of an asset or fund's performance as a result of a benchmark. R squared is reported as a number between 0 and 100. A hypothetical mutual fund with an R-squared of 0 has no correlation to its benchmark at all. A mutual fund with an R-squared of 100 matches the performance of its benchmark precisely.