we have focused on only one aspect of GARCH models, namely their ability to deliver one period ahead forecasts of volatility. We have compared these forecasts to a proxy of actual volatility calculated using daily stock returns and have found that the volatility series obtained from GARCH models is too smooth to capture the entire variation in actual volatility. We have demonstrated that this result is not an artifact of our choice of monthly/daily frequency but is quite independent of the frequency chosen. However, one cannot wholly reject the GARCH models in favor of our measure of volatility as the GARCH volatility frequently lies within the confidence interval of our other measure.