Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and ...

Financial variance is the difference between budgeted and actual spending. Positive variance means spending less, negative indicates overspending. Regular monitoring reduces surprises and improves ...

Dr. JeFreda R. Brown is a financial consultant, Certified Financial Education Instructor, and researcher who has assisted thousands of clients over a more than two-decade career. She is the CEO of ...

Facilities that focus on manufacturing and production track two kinds of costs: fixed costs and variable costs. The variable costs are those that change when production levels change: raw materials, ...

Standard deviation and variance are two basic mathematical concepts that have an important place in various parts of the financial sector, from accounting to economics to investing. Both measure the ...

If the expected return on two projects is the same but the second has a higher variance (or standard deviation), then the first will be preferred. Also, if the variance on the two projects is the same ...