Idiosyncratic Risk

Idiosyncratic risk is a type of investment risk that is endemic to an individual asset (like a particular company’s stock), or a group of assets (like a particular sector’s stocks), or in some cases, a very specific asset class (like collateralized mortgage obligations). Idiosyncratic risk is also referred to as a specific risk or unsystematic risk. Therefore, the opposite of idiosyncratic risk is a systematic risk, which is the overall risk that affects all assets, such as fluctuations in the stock market, interest rates, or the entire financial system.