This lecture discusses measuring risk through return volatility. It introduces variance and standard deviation as measures of total risk, and beta as a standardized measure of risk relative to the market. Beta measures the covariance between an asset's returns and the market returns. The Capital Asset Pricing Model uses beta to translate risk into a required return based on the risk-free rate and expected market return. Diversification reduces total risk by offsetting some asset-specific risks. Variance is used to calculate total portfolio risk based on the individual risks and correlations of the assets in the portfolio.