Dr. Contrarian: Why Mixing Bonds and CDs With Stocks Actually Increases Your Risk

Plus, to achieve this you have to freeze your money in bonds (the trading alternative: short-term volatility and high risk) or CDs (the longer the term, the better the return). Therefore, you reduce your short-term liquidity . This means you increase your short-term risk, not reduce it.

So when it comes to investing, what you're really concerned about is not "volatility," but whether or not you'll "have what you need and want, when you need want it."