That's pretty much what people use stock market for anyway. Most investors are no warren buffet, they bet at best on educated guesses.
Harder to justify what the point of Bitcoin financial instruments is though, since it can't really be used for much at all in its current state. Maybe if it stabilized and became a proper store of value (whether the incentives to keep a cryptocurrency stable are even there remains another question), but now it's just so hype driven.
I guess ultimately 'the point' of it all it doesn't matter, people can trade in imaginary goods no problem. Still exposes the strangeness of modern financial markets.
In 2012, 50% of of US trading was considered "automated high-frequency trading".
That's what I used to think until I began to understand (through Mr Money Mustache posts) that lots of people with large amounts of money invest (i.e. buy-and-hold) in the stock market because, despite the annual ups and downs, it has historical net annual gains of 7-10% over the last hundred years...
Warren Buffet is an investor. He buys a business (he thinks) he understands and then holds on to it while it generates profit.
It really bothers me that - in business terms - investors are nowadays just lumped together with speculators.
Investors try to build something while speculators just try to make money, no matter the cost to anybody else.
The more traditional investor gets a stake in a company and due to that stake gets a say in the running of the company, thus having an influence on its future and growth (or decline). Less of a gamble there, it becomes part of their own responsibility then.
Based on your definition, what would you call Carl Icahn then?
I tend to agree with John Bogle's definition that both types of people are in it for the money, the only fundamental difference is the time horizon either is willing to wait to reap the returns from their investment.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Bogle#Investment_philo...:
The main difference between investment and speculation lies in the time horizon. Investment is concerned with capturing returns on the long-run with lower risk, while speculation is concerned with achieving returns over a short period of time. Bogle believes this is an important analysis to be taken into account as short-term, risky investments have been flooding the financial markets.
Asshole?
So you think for instance that someone who puts all their income into a savings account, taking from it during the month to pay their expenses, is a speculator?
There are uses for short-term financial instruments other than speculation, for instance protecting the principal from inflation.