Are you an Investor or a Speculator?

A successful stock market shareholder is financially literate and does not simply do guesswork when s/he trades stocks. In other words, a single stock purchase for the real investor means a comprehensive understanding of the company’s operations as a whole.

A speculator, on the other hand, sees the stock market as simply a floor full of fluctuating numbers. As a speculator, you make trade decisions based on instinct. When the numbers go up, you sell your share and you purchase when the prices of potentially valuable stocks go down.

Some people ask if it matters if you’re an investor or a mere speculator. There are a lot of speculators who get lucky on the floor, after all.

It’s probably less significant when you spend most of your time simply staring at numbers. However, the dedicated investor would still try to ground his trade decisions based on reality.

Sometimes stock price movement can be predicted based on current events. In fact, when the effects start reflecting on stock price movement, it’s probably a signal that you’re already too late to act on it. The “wave” has come and passed, so you can no longer ride it.

If you’re a sensitive investor, you’ll see the first signs of a company’s rise or fall before anyone else does. This requires extensive research and full manipulation of different market tools.

In other words, you’re a true blue investor when you’re able to spot a stock market indicator before it moves the price of your stock share.