A category of assets that are supposedly safe or riskless. Examples of safe assets include US treasury bonds, currencies of well-established and stable economies such Japan (JPY), USA (USD), etc. At times of bad news and crises, investors abandon risk assets, selling stocks and commodities and buying safer government debt issues and currencies. Switching to risk-off assets depends on a number of factors including volatility, risk appetite, overall risk sentiment in a market, etc.