When an Inner Circle member asked for my “cool-as-a-cucumber” opinion on Qualcomm (see first question below), he was referring to the stock’s volatility. Qualcomm hit a high of $69 this past March, then plunged 23%, to $53, in about three months. A slump like that can be heart-wrenching for Qualcomm investors, especially those who bought near the peak. But 2012 has been an average year for Qualcomm. In the past decade, Qualcomm has more than quadrupled, rising from $15 in 2002, to the high near $69 this past March. In every one of those years, however, it has had a fair-sized setback or “correction”, as you can see in the see table below: In this QCOM fell from A drop of In this many year HIGH ($) to LOW ($) (%) months 2012 $69 " $53 23% 3 2011 $59 " $46 22% 1 2010 $50 " $32 36% 5 2009 $49 " $40 18% 3 2008 $56 " $29 48% 3 2007 $48 " $36 25% 3 2006 $53 " $33 38% 3 2005 $44 " $32 27% 3 2004 $44 " $38 14% 1 2003 $20 " $15 25% 2 2002 $22 " $12 45% 2 Risky and fast-growing stocks like Qualcomm do tend to be volatile. After all, their future is unclear, so investors’ views on what these stocks are worth can change abruptly. But if you look back over a decade or more, you’ll…