Knowing & understanding the difference between trading & investing is important to help investors & traders to choose the role they take in the investment world. Not only that, it also has a purpose for things that are visionary, for example how performance, tactics to the strategies taken.
Here are the differences between investors and traders that you need to understand:
- Understanding Roles and Goals
The main difference between investors and traders is the understanding of their roles and objectives. If investors will buy instruments by considering the fundamentals, traders will buy by looking at market conditions and sentiment. - Timeframe Approach
Whereas traders opt for short time horizons (e.g. daily-minute counts), investors opt for long time horizons (even up to decades). - Determining Strategy
In general, investors choose strategies with analysis, a combination of fundamentals and technicals, in contrast to traders who choose profit targets & stop losses. - Trading Frequency and Intensity
A trader's position obviously has more intensity or more frequent buying and selling activity than an investor, because traders are very concerned with the movement of prices up or down. If investors have low trading frequency and intensity then, on the contrary, traders have high trading frequency and intensity. - Focus on Income and Capital Gain
The focus on income and capital gains is another key difference between investors and traders. While investors focus on low income and capital gains, the focus on income and capital gains on the part of traders is usually higher.