An explanation of volatility
The relative rate at which the price of a security (your investment) moves up and down. Volatility is found by calculating the annualized standard deviation of daily change in price. If the price of a stock (your investment) moves up and down rapidly over short time periods, it has high volatility. If the price (fund value) almost never changes, it has low volatility.
When considering volatility, which historically tells us the more risk you take, potentially the greater the reward; the period of investment is critical. There is little point of investing in a high risk fund for less that 10 years because the fund value will fluctuate more shaprly and more often than lower risk funds. The fund must be given time to recover, which can take several months or several years.