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Let’s define the terms.

Under trading, if we are talking about financial markets, it is customary to understand short-term trading, speculation, resale. Under investing, respectively, long-term trading. In general, traders can trade grain, oil and anything else. And you can invest in real estate, works of art, postage stamps, numismatics and hundreds of other ways – but in this book we will only talk about stock trading.

It is important to understand that there is no clear boundary between the concepts of “investing” and “trading”. There are simply no hard time benchmarks or other unambiguous criteria. You won’t find statements anywhere:

Here is investing, because the transaction lasted more than 1 hour, and here is trading, because the order was closed after 59 minutes.

May the highbrow theoretical financiers forgive us if we hurt their tender feelings, but that’s the way it is. Let’s say Warren Buffett, who has been actively trading on the stock market since the 50s of the last century – is he a trader or an investor?

In the classic works of Benjamin Graham “The Intelligent Investor: A Complete Guide to Value Investing” and “Stock Market Analysis” we find the following definition:

Investments are operations, the purpose of which is to carefully analyze the situation, save the invested funds and get an acceptable profit. Operations that do not meet these requirements are speculations.

We agree with this short exhaustive term. In which a clear line is drawn between professionalism and recklessness. When buying and selling stocks, bonds, currencies and anything else becomes a kind of financial casino for a person. Only the place of roulette or playing cards is occupied by stock quotes and a trading terminal. When people are just chasing adrenaline, thrills, the possibility of a random win. They are not looking for earnings, with the help of knowledge and experience, but quick and easy money.

If, after a thorough analysis of the market situation, a person saved a deposit and made a profit, say, on the EURUSD currency pair – is he an investor or a trader? You can’t tell right away. Let’s leave this task to armchair scientists and indefatigable internet disputants.

We are more interested in making money on the market.