Trading vs Investing
So, you want to trade stocks? Do you enjoy looking at the stock market daily, watching the financial news, reading charts? If you do, then trading is probably for you. If you answered no to any of these questions, I think you are more of the investor type.
Trading is a short game in the financial world. Let’s break it down, a stock trader typically looks at the news in the morning, keys up the stock scanner, looks for stocks that are on the move for the day. Then once the market opens at 9:30 E.S.T., he/she will execute trades in and out of stocks in the same day hoping to profit on the short- term movements of the stock.
Investing is more of the long game in the financial world. An investor looks to buy a stock after learning about the fundamentals of the company and truly wants to be a shareholder. He/she hopes that the stock will increase in value over a longer time frame. That time frame may be a year or ten years.
Many people like myself are both investors and traders of stock for both have their purpose. If you have a 401K at work you are most likely invested in mutual funds which is a long game mentality. However, if you would like to become a day trader, you can open a brokerage account and begin the journey into the world of trading stocks. I see stock trading as an opportunity to live my dreams and look out onto a bigger world than I could have possible imagined in a 9-5 job!
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