Not trading is not a bad thing. I have also had a long career managing money. I look back at the amount of trading I have done which has been mostly detrimental to my results. I like many other professionals traded too much. I traded because I was paid to. No one paid me to sit and do nothing. Though sticking with the position was the best thing to do. I am not sure these investors and uneducated. Maybe they know something we don't.

Totally agree. My personal opinion is that I can't think of anything more risky than buying some stock and just leaving it there for years. Anything could happen. The conventional wisdom of course is to diversify, but that is a recipe for watering down your investment to the lamest common denominator.

Isn't the "rebalancing" that mutual funds do some form of trading anyway. It's almost as though the pro's are saying, "trading just doesn't work, investing is the way to go, so give us your money, by putting it in mutual funds or what not, and we'll trade with it, and give you 6% and keep the rest."

It all depends whether one is there in the markets to create wealth or regular income.

The greatest myth and untruth about "investments" is that investments doesn't need a STOP protection. If you employ proper stops in your investment portfolio, you may still create wealth without trading too much. Call it long-range trading if you wish.

Today's major lure for HFT's is based on the understanding that if you keep doing million trades with a tiny proven edge, you will end up making money. It has some logic for sure. But the real wealth can be created only with long-range (investment) trading.

Trevor, not only that not trading is not a bad thing, it is actually the best thing. With trading one could never catch a long-term trend and ride it to the end. The results are bad to mediocre, the stress never leaves you but you have a lot of fun and adrenaline rush, as well as ego and vanity non-stop turned on. Personally I've done tons of this with almost nothing to write home about. What took me to change the approach and humble down was when I fully understood the phrases "if you have fun while trading then you're not making money, you make money when your trading is boring" (George Soros), "the market is a transferring machine that transfers the money from the active to the patient" (Warren Buffett) and "in the short term the market is a voting machine, in the long term the market is a weighing machine" (Benjamin Graham). At the end, "less is more" and "simple, but not easy" always win the day.

Primary is: " what is our philosophy".

If we trade on the investment principles, then we have a chance of success. But, if you we trad on the principle of gambling, then we have a chance to fail.

However, if we are trading on the principles of investing, what we do, we trade or invest?

But, if we trade on the principle of gambling, where we consciously or unconsciously take great risks, then we can talk about the differences between gambling and investing.

I am of the opinion that the trading is only method of investments.

Philosophy and way of thinking, these are things of the utmost importance

I can not see a clear distinction between trading and investing, I can see the difference between investing and gambling.

It seems to me that the problem is more in perception and terminology.

A trade is only then an investment if it is based on valuation principles before placing an order. For this purpose, trading is just a tool to have an investment exposure.

What makes speculators different from investors are the opinions or facts upon which their trade decisions are based, and how often they change their mind.

It seems that investing is more about acquiring stake in a business, if not controlling then at least registering as a voter. Otherwise, they look the same, with the difference in time horizon and decision making process.

it seems many if not all understand that investing is a way to grow wealth. trading it seems is being associated with gambling, think about it from my obviously minority viewpoint.

investing you have no idea about what you will wake up to each morning and gains that have taken years to obtain can easily be wiped out from my view. trading with a proven edge limits market exposure to the size of the current trade and does not dip into the gained profits.

trading may of course be involved in the same catastrophic event that would wipe out a investment portfolio but who have very limited effect by comparison to a smaller position short term trade. both methods could also be considered gambling, no way can you argue with me that long term investing is any less gambling than short term trading.

given an even "edge" for both investing or trading still investing would be more dangerous just because of the whole basket being exposed longer to risk. sensible?

As I often say to colleagues and to many in my beta-tester group: whereas trading is about capturing volatility, investing is about capturing value – they are not mutually exclusive, simply two sides of the same coin, which is about compounding capital with disciplined risk management over a sustained period of time. Ultimately, approaches applied to the markets by market participants are determined by the composition and character in the relevant chain of resources – minds, methods, and pool of money.

Investing is a broad term, e.g.: real estate, private business, ... On the market, an investor would seek undervalued assets, companies, research industry, trends, up to meeting the owners, buying a stake and selling it when time's favorable, - this whole area is different from trading. An idea of investment as addressed here apparently refers to passively holding portfolio based on the belief that "stocks always go up in a long term" - one has to look at an inflation-adjusted DJIA over the last 100 years to see this is wrong.

The difference between Trading and Investing is like playing 20/20 or one day cricket v/s test match. Although the play field is the same, neither you can play like test match in one day cricket and nor you can play like one day cricket in test match. The chances of losing the game increases if type of play is played in another. This is the game of specialization and I am a trader and I don't invest.

My dear members,

First, know that I am very happy to exchange with you. Investment in financial markets has evolved over the last 30 years, with the arrival of the Internet and new technologies.

I distinguish between several types of investors:

The first is the investor who seeks to add value, by positioning itself in yield and growth stocks, by capturing long-term dividends. This person is more moral, because she cares about the impact of her investments and seeks to know the business, and the managers, before placing her money.

There is then, the trader, who seeks to play only discrepancies on stock prices. It does not participate in capital increases, does not look after the performance, or the quality of the business. It only seeks to take advantage of course shift on the title, only.

Then there are these new investors, I would call them the players, those who only make the index and the Forex, seeking to win 10-20 pips, with big levers and little capital. They, generally, ser

Sanjay, I like your sports analogy so I will add my two cents using sports-investing is like betting at the beginning of the championship who will end up first after say series of 20 matches (total of winning games, losing and draws); trading is like betting on the outcome of the every single one of those 20 matches

I just want to say , I'm returning from a BBC History event with two pals who occasionally dabble in stocks , one guy has half his NAV

Marjan Stojanovski,

Investing is when we bet on each match before the match began, according to the model that we have set.

Trading is if we bet on every match during the match, where your payments (buying or selling) reaching changes occurring during the match.

But, the process of trading during the match, follows certain rules that are identical to the investment process (rules).

Also, we can apply the model of investing in the trading process, for example, the Futures , what it is, trading or investing? Some call this trade, while others call it investing.

Investing or Trading ? I would say that any position that last longer than month to month expiration on say an futures option position would be Investing. I know that is going to seem a very short time period for some but I like to day trade so any overnight exposure is something I had rather avoid.