Risk-Free Rate Often taking a risk is a choice. You can sit at home and watch Netflix on a rainy night, or you can go on a blind date. How appealing the safe option is matters. Before Netflix, TV choices were more limited. You might be more inclined to go out no matter what because staying in wasn’t so tempting. Now, thanks to streaming, the risk-free option is better, and the dating stakes are higher. How much we value risk—and, by extension, how much we are willing to pay to reduce it—often depends on what the safe alternative offers.
