Dictionary

risk-off en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (uncountable) 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:
   • 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:
   • 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:
   • 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:

Forms

Antonyms

risk-on