Risk and Return Explained

You want to understand risk and return in investing beyond "prices can go down". This explains what risk actually means in plain English, shows how different asset classes have behaved historically on volatility and return, and gives you the single question to work out your real risk tolerance, which is usually nothing like the one you would say out loud.

Explain risk and return in investing in plain English. What does risk actually mean, not just that prices can go down? Show me historically how different asset classes have behaved in terms of volatility and return. Then tell me the single question I should ask myself to understand my actual risk tolerance rather than my stated one, because they are often very different.