Alpha

A measure of performance on a risk-adjusted basis- Alpha takes the volatility (price risk) of a mutual fund and compares its risk-adjusted performance to a benchmark index. The excess return of the fund relative to the return of the benchmark index is a fund's alpha. Simply stated, alpha is often considered to represent the value that a portfolio manager adds to or subtracts from a fund's return.

A positive alpha of 1.0 means the fund has outperformed its benchmark index by 1%. Correspondingly, a similar negative alpha would indicate an underperformance of 1%.