How historically stable are Ford stock prices?

As of August 2015, Ford's stock has a beta of 1.32, according to Reuters. Investors use beta measurements to compare stocks' volatility to the market as a whole, explains Investoepdia. Ford's beta suggests that its stock's historical volatility exceeds the market's by 32 percent.

A negative beta, which is rare, indicates that a stock's price moves opposite to the market, while a beta of zero suggests a stock has no variance, notes Investopedia. A beta below one exists for stocks that are less volatile than the market. Betas above 1 are common in technology-based industries. To compare Ford's beta with its competitors', General Motors' and Toyota's betas are 1.73 and 1.2, respectively, according to the Financial Times.