Volatility
 

So, I'm wondering what Volatility does, and on what scale (both in effect and time).

I've assumed that it gives me a warning that some players are going to run hot and then cold, but I haven't paid enough attention to determine whether these effects are taking players only down from their visible skills, or also above them, and whether such streaks are on the level of just a game here or there, or parts of seasons; are highly volatile players always either hot or cold?

Basically I'm curious as to whether people have worked out how the stat works.

As far as I know, volatility only determines the likeliness of a player randomly gaining or losing rating points during training camp changes. I'm also under the assumption that these switches are so rare that it's not big enough of a deal to avoid players. A player with a volatility of 1 can still get a big boost or drop, it's just a little bit less likely than a player with volatility 99.

Oh!

I've always assumed it had to do with on-field performance, rather than development... Hmmm. Interesting!

From what I have seen by ing through, reloading, and simming again a few yes is there are a lot of 1 to 5 point changes and occasionally a bigger change. This means that a lower rated player with high volatility may be a good backup option in case he may jump up and also if your starter is high in volatility it would be a good idea to have depth in case he drops.

I just had a gaurd drafted in the 3rd round jump from 64 to 76 in what I think was a volatility jump so it can be a good thing too. I generally consider it a negative in early picks but a positive when looking for steals