Speculators are people or institutions who purchase an instrument (stock, commodity, etc.) in anticipation of price movements in order to later sell the instrum

Speculators are people or institutions who purchase an instrument (stock, commodity, etc.) in anticipation of price movements in order to later sell the instrument, without having an underlying business need for the instrument. [1] In the case of common stocks, unless someone's intent in buying the stock is to take over the company, use the voting rites to influence the makeup of the board, or otherwise use the voting rights, you are a speculator. You may be a long-horizon speculator, but you're still a speculator. Now, if you're a long-term speculator and the reason you dislike people who typically speculate over shorter term horizons than you do is that you believe they adversely affect your prices, consider that short-term speculators are often the people with the highest bids and lowest offers are shorter-term speculators. [1] http://www.nasdaq.com/investing/glossary/s/speculator http://www.nasdaq.com/investing/glossary/s/speculator