I know enough about investing to know that to do it properly, you need to consider your return in the context of the risk you took to make it. Riskier investments might return more but they might also bankrupt you and being blind to that leads to chasing returns and ultimately inevitable bankruptcy.
Now, a proper investing firm will have trained people with math degrees and decent computers doing risk management for them.
How is an average person at home supposed to calculate their risk? Is there any comprehensive way to model risk that can be done in a spreadsheet using basic algebra? Because that's probably what the average investor can do.
I've started reading about things like Value At Risk (VAR) modeling, etc, but what else is there? Is there something simpler? VAR can be used for complex derivatives risk analysis.
What if I'm just looking at index funds? Is there a dead simple way to check your risk for those?
Or are home investors just ducks lined up to be shot by institutional investors when the risk gets remotely complicated?