A speculator is interested in being right vs. wrong. a trader is interested in making money. A speculator can be right and lose lots of money.
laying in bed with the raven haired quant, however, i shall take the time to enlighten you to the best of my ability at this time. a trader can speculate and a speculator can trade but a trader and a speculator are different animals. a speculator accepts the risk of not knowing what's going to occur and bases decisions on a wide array of information, often for the longer term. tracy is correct in his post, also, a speculator can be correct yet lose money--- whereas a trader is right or wrong based solely on wins/losses. a trader, on the other hand, generally bases decisions on short term price movements and other ethereal indicators looking to take quick profits/losses via agiotage. noise traders, in particular, are not speculators--- regards, surf
It could be that Mrs. Surfer and Mr Surfer have indeed parted ways...thus the need for a Surfer asset (gaffaw) dump. But I have no info on that...that's simply random speculation. Which I hope isn't true.
Unless I am mistaken, that's a rather homespun definition, held together by duct tape. Would you kindly point me to the source of your comparative definitions? I think it would make for interesting reading.
wikipedia has a decent article on "speculator". however, i believe i am breaking new ground here in publication. regards, surf
As someone who used to work for PTJ back in 1986 ( I have his signature too ) I would say that Paul is fairly removed from trading these days . . . My vote for greatest trader of all time goes to Stevie Cohen, bar none.