what is levered beta 
levered beta measures the risk of a firm with debt and equity in its capital structure to the volatility of the market a key determinant of beta is leverage which measures the level of a company s debt to its equity so a publicly traded security s levered beta measures the sensitivity of that security s tendency to perform in relation to the overall market a levered beta greater than positive 1 or less than negative 1 means that it has greater volatility than the market a levered beta between negative 1 and positive 1 has less volatility than the market 