Every variance that isn't zero is a positive number. A variance cannot be negative. That's because it's mathematically impossible since you can't have a negative value resulting from a square. Variance is an important metric in the investment world.

Is variance negative or positive?

Because the squared deviations are all positive numbers or zeroes, their smallest possible mean is zero. It can't be negative. This average of the squared deviations is in fact variance. Therefore variance can't be negative.

Is variance always positive?

Variance is always nonnegative, since it's the expected value of a nonnegative random variable. Moreover, any random variable that really is random (not a constant) will have strictly positive variance. The nonnegative property.