A comment was made on another thread that sparked this question in my mind. What is an investor? What is the difference between an investor and a trader? Is it time frame? Is a person using the weekly chart not a trader, but the person using a minute chart is? Does it have to do with fundamentals to the exclusion of technical analysis? Do investors have no plan while traders do? Are investors those who have plans but don't follow them as was suggested in another thread, but traders both have a plan and follow it? I dare say then, given the immediately preceding qualifier as purported, there are a lot of investors on this board!
investor buys and hopes the long term will make him profitable.the trader knows that a stock can go nowhere for years and yet it has hundreds of points of swings in that time and trys to capture them.
for me, 'investor' activity tries to participate in the appreciation in value of a business enterprise as it grows over time while 'trader' activity looks to capitalize on the inefficiencies inherent in valuing the enterprise, and on the ignorance of other traders attempting the same but I don't think they are mutually exclusive.
No difference really. I am both a trader and an investor. Its just that where Warren Buffet invests for 10 years and beyond I invest for about 5 to 30 minutes in each stock.
An investor has a vested interest in the company she puts money into. A trader utilizes capital to buy something at which she can sell at a higher price (order independent) while having no vested interest in the item bought/sold.