Word.ws English Dictionary

risk-off

risk-off noun: a mode of investment behavior in which investors shift high-risk investments to low-risk investments.

Noun

risk-off (uncountable)

  1. A mode of investment behavior in which investors shift high-risk investments to low-risk investments.
    • In a risk-on environment, they then sell those currencies and use the proceeds to buy risk assets with greater price appreciation potential. In a risk-off environment, they're compelled to sell their risk assets and buy back those funding currencies that they previously sold.2011, Brian Dolan, Currency Trading For Dummies, →ISBN, page 98
    • The yen tends to appreciate in the aftermath – first two quarters – of risk-off episodes, whether the appreciation is measured as nominal, real effective, or bilateral against the U.S. dollar (Figure 6).2013, Dennis P. J. Botman, Irineu E. Carvalho Filho, Mr. Raphael W. Lam, The Curious Case of the Yen as a Safe Haven Currency, →ISBN

Examples of risk-off in a sentence

  • It is also noteworthy that risk-off events have happened more often since 2007.2013, Reinout De Bock, Irineu E. Carvalho Filho, The Behavior of Currencies during Risk-off Episodes, →ISBN, page ii:
  • My answer is a straightforward no, but that the recent episode of global financial market turmoil is likely to be more serious than any period of volatility and risk-off behaviour since 2009.2016 March 2, Nouriel Roubini, “Is the world economy having a 2008 moment?”, in The Guardian:

Antonyms of risk-off

Forms of risk-off

alternative formrisk off

Questions about risk-off

What does risk-off mean?
Risk-off means a mode of investment behavior in which investors shift high-risk investments to low-risk investments.
How do you use risk-off in a sentence?
It is also noteworthy that risk-off events have happened more often since 2007.
What part of speech is risk-off?
Risk-off is a noun.

Words near risk-off in the dictionary

  1. risk-assessing
  2. risk-averse
  3. risk-aversities
  4. risk-aversity
  5. risk-free
  6. risk-off
  7. risk-on
  8. risk-taking
  9. riskable
  10. Riske
  11. risked

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: risk-off (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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