From P78 in ETF for Dummies, 2nd Ed, by Russell Wild :
Beta’s usefulness is greater for individual stocks than it is for ETFs, but nonetheless it can be helpful, especially when gauging the volatility of U.S. industry-sector ETFs. It is much less useful for any ETF that has international holdings. For example, an ETF that holds stocks of emerging-market nations is going to be volatile, trust me, yet it may have a low beta. How so? Because its movements, no matter how swooping, don’t generally happen in response to movement in the U.S. market. (Emerging-market stocks tend to be more tied to currency flux, commodity prices, interest rates, and political climate.)
Would someone please expound this case of high volatility and low beta, or low volatility and high beta? Is it because this book is referring only to the beta predicated on the US stock market?