The answer to the headline question is in the book "how to lose a million dollars", which I recommend. The author describes four classes of financial risk-taki

The answer to the headline question is in the book "how to lose a million dollars", which I recommend. The author describes four classes of financial risk-taking 1. Investing 2. Speculating 3. Market making (I think) 4. Gambling Investing is risking capital with a strong probability of maintaining the principle while receiving a reasonable return. Gambling is when you have a negative-sum chance at keeping your principle. As a result, one person with limited information and portfolio diversity could "gamble" on apple stock while another person with more diversity is "investing." Fundamentally, they're more about information and risk than anything else.