risk-metrics-calculation

★ 37,559

by wshobson · part of wshobson/agents

Calculate portfolio risk metrics including VaR, CVaR, Sharpe, Sortino, and drawdown analysis. Use when measuring portfolio risk, implementing risk limits, or building risk monitoring systems.

🧩 One of 7 skills in the wshobson/agents package — works on its own, and pairs well with its siblings.

This is the playbook your agent receives when the skill activates — you don't need to read it to use the skill, but it's here to audit before installing.

Risk Metrics Calculation

Comprehensive risk measurement toolkit for portfolio management, including Value at Risk, Expected Shortfall, and drawdown analysis.

When to Use This Skill

Measuring portfolio risk
Implementing risk limits
Building risk dashboards
Calculating risk-adjusted returns
Setting position sizes
Regulatory reporting

Core Concepts

1. Risk Metric Categories

Category	Metrics	Use Case
Volatility	Std Dev, Beta	General risk
Tail Risk	VaR, CVaR	Extreme losses
Drawdown	Max DD, Calmar	Capital preservation
Risk-Adjusted	Sharpe, Sortino	Performance

2. Time Horizons

Intraday:   Minute/hourly VaR for day traders
Daily:      Standard risk reporting
Weekly:     Rebalancing decisions
Monthly:    Performance attribution
Annual:     Strategic allocation

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Best Practices

Do's

Use multiple metrics - No single metric captures all risk
Consider tail risk - VaR isn't enough, use CVaR
Rolling analysis - Risk changes over time
Stress test - Historical and hypothetical
Document assumptions - Distribution, lookback, etc.

Don'ts

Don't rely on VaR alone - Underestimates tail risk
Don't assume normality - Returns are fat-tailed
Don't ignore correlation - Increases in stress
Don't use short lookbacks - Miss regime changes
Don't forget transaction costs - Affects realized risk