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UNH 20-day volatility: the current reading and its track record

UNH’s current 20-day volatility reading and what that signal has historically been followed by.

This page covers UnitedHealth Group (UNH) — its current 20-day volatility reading and the measured historical record of what UNH 20-day volatility extremes were followed by.

How to read this. These figures are measured only on instruments currently covered by this site — a set of companies that survived. Signals that appear to have ‘worked’ on the downside are conditioned on these names having recovered; a company that fell and never came back would not be here to measure. Read every number below as a property of this surviving sample, not a universal rule, and never as advice.

All figures are ‘excess’ returns — measured relative to each instrument’s own historical drift, not relative to the market. This is not alpha and not a market-beating claim; it isolates the signal from the instrument’s background trend. Measured from the first day each signal appeared (not its most extreme point), so it reflects what was knowable in real time.

Measured across UNH’s 20-day volatility history from 1985 to 2024: 103 low-extreme episodes. Low-extreme readings were followed by -0.44% excess at 5 sessions and -0.93% by 20.

On this signal, the most recent episode in which UNH was at a low extreme began on 2024-10-03.

Outcomes are measured for episodes up to 2024-10-03, the most recent with enough later sessions to score. The current reading above is from a later date, 2026-10-16.

When UNH was at a high extreme

UNH has only 14 past episodes on this signal — too few to characterise on their own. Showing the all-stocks pattern instead.

Across 1116 past episodes where a stock was at a high extreme on this signal, the 1115 with a complete 20-session forward window beat the stock’s own trailing drift by 0.30 percentage points on average (50% of those 1115 beat drift).

the stock forward excess return vs its own drift after high-extreme 20-day volatility readings, by horizon.
horizonexcess vs own driftbeat-drift rateepisodes with a complete horizon
1 session+0.26%49%1116
5 sessions+0.07%49%1116
20 sessions+0.30%50%1115

When UNH was at a low extreme

Across 103 past episodes where UNH was at a low extreme on this signal, the close 20 sessions later lagged UNH’s own trailing drift by 0.93 percentage points on average (45% of episodes beat drift).

UNH forward excess return vs its own drift after low-extreme 20-day volatility readings, by horizon.
horizonexcess vs own driftbeat-drift rateepisodes with a complete horizon
1 session+0.05%47%103
5 sessions-0.44%46%103
20 sessions-0.93%45%103

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