Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange
Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [speculation]

34 questions
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What does Benjamin Graham mean by "Those who speculate make money for their brokers"?

In The Intelligent Investor, page 36, Zwieg, who is writing the commentary, states "those who invest make money for themselves. Those who speculate make money for their brokers." Why is it the case that brokers profit off speculators?
Franklin V
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What is the difference between speculating and investing?

I keep hearing people saying that a speculation is NOT an investment, but isn't it really just investment with high risk?
triforcelink
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How can I gamble in a "lottery" by using financial instruments?

I noticed that some financial instruments have lottery-like payoffs. If that is really the case, I am planning to play the "lottery" using financial instruments instead of the lotteries organized by the gambling industry. Reasons for doing…
user102086
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Taxation from variations in currency

Assuming: I am a UK tax payer I live in the UK Assume I sell a good online, for $100. One payment method I accept is Bitcoins. Bitcoins at the moment are extremely volatile, it wouldn't surprise me if the price fell or rose huge amounts intra…
Tom Gullen
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Is there a financial product that allows speculation on GDP?

is there an financial product linked to the GDP of the US (or other countries)? There are plenty of derivatives and certificates whose underlying equity is the Dow Jones, which makes it possible to speculate on the performance of the Dow Jones. I…
Roman Turner
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Are my purchases of stock, mutual funds, ETF's, and commodities investing, or speculation?

Every other week money is deducted from my paycheck to purchase mutual funds inside my 401k, every so often I dump money into an individual investment account to purchase stocks, mutual funds, and ETF's. The myriad of commercials I see on TV every…
Glorified Plumber
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How does a CFD work behind the scenes?

I'm curious as to how the Contracts For Difference (CFDs) work. I understand how they work for the consumer side - you enter into an agreement to pay/be paid the difference between the stock price at time of entry and exit, but how does the broker…
ChrisJ
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With respect to insider trading, what is considered "material information"?

I'm trying to understand what is considered "material" information held by an executive of a company. There is company information that an executive (say insider) will know that a public investor will not be privy to, but at which point does the…
val
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How to consider stock splits with respect to ETFs? Any different than for regular shares?

"Splits are used to increase the availability of shares on the market." I am unsure about this statement because you can increase the availability of shares through third-party funds like with Berkshire shares. Now, I am trying to understand what…
user1770
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1 answer

Given how much price decay there is in inverse (short) ETF's, are the inverse ETF's profitable even in a prolonged bear market?

To me some of these products look like they are designed in a the-house-always-wins manner, especially when one looks at their 1yr or 5yr charts. This observation applies for general ones bearish on like the whole S&P's or for ones even in specific…
theAngryPhysicist
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Isn't an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) a surefire way to make tons of money?

I know this sounds stupid, but all the crypto currencies do really, really well after an initial Coin Offering (ICO), with some coins going up 10000% in 6 months. I find it puzzling: shouldn't people be racing to buy every new coin, ever? Even if…
Matt Cox
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Speculation in The Intelligent Investor

I'm reading The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, and I'm on Chapter 1: Investment versus Speculation. On page 21, he has this footnote: Speculation is beneficial on two levels.... Secondly, risk is exchanged (but never eliminated) every…
APerson
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Can I trade options purely as a leveraged product?

Following the Three Ways to Buy Options article from NASDAQ, there are supposedly three different ways to trade options after buying them: Exercise the option at maturity Exercise the option before maturity Don't exercise the option Specifically,…
Jean-Paul
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What is moving the cryptocurrency market apart from speculators?

I would like to know if there is anything that moves the crypto market apart from the speculators, or are cryptocurrencies purely speculative? For example, in the oil industry there are hedgers who play a large role in what happens to commodity…
Udb
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Buffettesque Speculation in Consumer Sector, legendary-investor -philia?

Some corps in consumer sector are glamoured in many books associating to Graham and W. Buffett, I think even some books by Graham falls into this problem. The books I have covered so far have not critically investigated the RISK, tasting more appeal…
user1770
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