In the technical (engineering) world risk is a function of both 'probablity of event' and 'consequence of event'. This fits more with my view on it though I agree with you that in the financial world it's more to do with volatility (ie; what's the price doing rather that what the asset or business is doing). I'm not so concerned with volatility. So taking the technical view: gold can be volatile but the consequences of 'failure' are a drop in price not a company going into liquidation.
