Brian Beers is a digital editor, writer, Emmy-nominated producer, and content expert with 15+ years of experience writing about corporate finance & accounting, fundamental analysis, and investing.

Steven Nickolas is a writer and has 10+ years of experience working as a consultant to retail and institutional investors. Gordon Scott has been an active investor and technical analyst or 20+ years.

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Example 1: The population from which samples are selected is {1,2,3,4,5,6}. This population has a mean of 3.5 and a standard deviation of 1.70783. The next display shows a histogram of the population.

In response to my article, Is the Stock Market Too Concentrated?, which relied upon standard-deviation calculations to assess investment risk, a reader wrote: “My problem [with your argument] is ...