Are there more speculators or investors?

Question

They are many people investing in the world. But most of them are catergorised as which?

Answer 1

These are both general and specific terms. To many, the popular meanings are interchangable. Technically, by one direction of meaning, if you bought a stock and sold it at a profit less than a year it is a speculation and is taxed at a different rate than if the holding was over a year, which is taxed at the now-lower capital gains rate.

Intrinsicly, a speculator is putting money into something so that the value of that something will rise, so that the speculator can sell it at a profit. An investor is putting money into something for the sake of the enterprise. A man buys a farm, maybe plants a crop on it to show its worth and vitality, then sells it to someone. This is a speculator. Another man buys a farm, plants crops, maybe an orchard or vineyard, and thinks of the years of produce and productivity he will get from working that land. This man is an investor.

The stock market is chock full of speculators. But there are people in that crowd who buy a part of a company because they want to be a part of that company's future. These are distinctly fewer. I trade some stocks because the market value moves. There are some stocks I keep even though the market value has diminished. There is potential and I am hopeful that those companies will do more of the things they try to do. I am both, a speculator and an investor.

Answer 2

I think most people are a little of both. If you invest in stocks, you should have some investments that are "safe", meaning they don't go up too much or down too much. You should also have investments that are more speculative, meaning they could go up or down by a lot. Most of the best investors have a nice mix of safe and risky stocks. They also hold some stocks long and some stocks short (meaning they make money if the stock goes down).

You can see what the best investors are doing at http://www.top10traders.com - this is a free site that lets you create a portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in "play" money. Each day the site ranks the best performing portfolios, so you can see how your picks perform compared to other investors. You can also read posts on investing from the best traders, as well as share your own investing ideas. There is also a charting feature , so you can see how your portfolio performs compared to the S&P 500.

Here are this month's best traders:

http://www.top10traders.com/Top10Standings.aspx

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

There are far more investors than speculators. Investing, by definition, is an activity in which one gives up something of value temporarily or permanently with an expectation to make an economic return that is of greater value. Speculators as we know them are also investors, just a small fraction of all investors. Speculators are a highly sophisticated and risk tolerant few, whereas an investor is everyone of us who has a savings account or a 401K account or a house, etc.

Answer 4

In my business, futures, the speculators provide liquidity for the hedgers. And they form a symbiotic relationship. One depends on the other. Same is true in the stock market. If it wasn't for speculators that are willing to speculate on a stocks appreciation potential, companies would have a much more difficult time raising money.

Answer 5

I believed there is a fair number of each out there and one needs the other. But, since the question is which is more out there, I would have to say, there are more investors than speculators. See http://ibooyah.com for invesment matters.

Answer 6

Investors.