[ { "key": "ZIKPVHD6", "version": 2, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 212115, "name": "Tower Technology News Tokyo", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/tower_technology_news_tokyo", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/212115/items/ZIKPVHD6", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/tower_technology_news_tokyo/items/ZIKPVHD6", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 1545744, "username": "dianneberkley", "name": "", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/dianneberkley", "type": "text/html" } } }, "numChildren": 1 }, "data": { "key": "ZIKPVHD6", "version": 2, "itemType": "journalArticle", "title": "Why trading and investing don't mix by Tower Technology News", "creators": [], "abstractNote": "This week I want to clear up the difference between trading and investing.\n\nMany people are successful in one or the other and some people do both separately and still manage it well. The biggest danger lies in the crossover of the two and letting your trades become investments or your investments become trades. This happens with new traders/investors who do not know the difference between the two and therefore end up making mistakes, not obvious to them, but glaringly obvious to the experienced hand.\n\nFirst let's establish what each of them is, the major similarities and the biggest single difference and some reasons why trading and investing must not overlap.\n\nTrading versus Investing\n\nTrading and investing have one major thing in common; we are placing our money somewhere today and hoping to make a profit on it in the future. Every time we position our money in this fashion, there is a downside risk that we could lose money and this is equally apparent for both traders and investors. They sound quite similar right? It's no surprise that people new to this domain get them confused and the lines are often blurred.\n\nThe biggest difference between the two is the time period over which we plan to keep our money in its new position. Investments are normally for years or even decades. People invest in the family home, they invest in rental property, they invest in Kiwisaver and other managed investment vehicles. Many people invest in the share market by buying stocks today that they think have long term potential and then holding those shares for the long term.\n\nTraders on the other hand have a much shorter outlook and this can be anything from seconds to minutes, hours, days, weeks or months. Once you get into the realm of a year or more, it's a bit of a grey area in some situations but by most (not all) definitions, that's starting to look more like an investment than a trade.\n\nAs discussed above, many people 'invest' in property when they buy it and hold it long term. But, people also 'trade' property which can involve a common scenario such as buying a home, doing it up to add value and selling it a few weeks/months later at a profit (or loss)... then doing it again and again. This person would now almost certainly be considered a property trader or using IRD's terminology, a property 'dealer' as compared to an 'investor'.\n\nPeople can invest in shares for the long term, they can also trade shares in the short term. Trades and investments are not limited to the stock market although stocks are typically the most common 'investors' market. You can also trade or invest in the forex, bonds and futures markets. The difference again is the intention and the timeframe. If I buy a stock with the intention to sell it next week for a profit, that's a trade. If I buy a stock with the intention to sit on it for the long term while watching the company grow; that is an investment.\n\nBut what if I buy a stock today as an investment, then next week I see a small profit or loss and close it out prematurely? Or what if I take a trade today which I plan on closing in the next few days, yet the trade starts losing me money so I hold onto it for the long term, 'hoping' it will come back to profit? Now I am mixing up trading and investing and this is a dangerous mistake to make.\n\nWhy Trading and Investing Don't Mix\n\nMost people who invest in a managed fund understand the reasons why they are doing it and they are almost exclusively long-term investments - not to mention the entry and exit fees that make it somewhat prohibitive to 'trade' a managed fund! Most people in Kiwisaver for example are saving for retirement, others for an even longer term legacy and some for a first home. The key thing is that it's long term, it is an investment.\n\nNow imagine you invest a starting $5k in KiwiSaver this week and next week it is worth $5200. You think, wow, I have made a profit, let's cash that baby in! Well the restrictions of KiwiSaver probably won't allow you to do that but hopefully you get the point - a long-term investment in this situation would have become a short-term trade.", "publicationTitle": "", "publisher": "", "place": "", "date": "", "volume": "", "issue": "", "section": "", "partNumber": "", "partTitle": "", "pages": "", "series": "", "seriesTitle": "", "seriesText": "", "journalAbbreviation": "", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11124366", "accessDate": "", "PMID": "", "PMCID": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "", "tags": [ { "tag": "tower technology news, tower-techtokyo.com, Why trading and investing don't mix" } ], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2013-09-17T11:13:10Z", "dateModified": "2013-09-17T11:13:10Z" } }, { "key": "HFRCDPQK", "version": 2, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 212115, "name": "Tower Technology News Tokyo", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/tower_technology_news_tokyo", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/212115/items/HFRCDPQK", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/tower_technology_news_tokyo/items/HFRCDPQK", "type": "text/html" }, "up": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/212115/items/ZIKPVHD6", "type": "application/json" } }, "meta": { "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "HFRCDPQK", "version": 2, "parentItem": "ZIKPVHD6", "itemType": "note", "note": "", "tags": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2013-09-17T11:13:10Z", "dateModified": "2013-09-17T11:13:10Z" } } ]