投资和投机 Investing v.s. Speculation

Investing or speculation are two very different ways of thinking. If a person sees the asset valuable and want to hold for a long time, he would like to buy it at the right price and hold it for a long time until the value is not worthy in his opinion. If a person is not sure about owning the asset while he is trying to guess its price will rise or fall and trying to profit from that, it is called speculation.

投资和投机是两种非常不同的想法。如果一个人认为资产有价值想要长期拥有，他会有合适的价格购买，直到觉得不值拥有才会卖掉。如果一个人不确定是否要拥有，只是在猜价格会涨会跌，想要从中获益，这就是投机。

A lot of people think the stock market is volatile, and it is easy to lose money. I am asking him this question: do you think the stock is worthy? If yes, buy it with smaller amount of money over a long investing period. This way you can smooth out the volatility of prices. And you hold it until your opinion changes. If you are trying to time the market to buy low and sell high, you are more like a gambler, because nobody knows it will rise or fall tomorrow and you are not smarter than all the people trying to gauge the price. The price is hard to be “right” at any moment, because it is all about supply and demand.

很多人认为股市波动太大，非常容易输钱。我就想问他这个问题，你觉得这个股票值得拥有吗？如果答案是是，采用分批买入可以减少的价格波动，然后长期持有直到你改变主意。如果你去猜价格，想买低卖高卖，这很像赌博，因为没人能预知价格会涨会跌，你也不会比市场上所有猜价格的人聪明。价格很难在对的点，因为由供给和需求决定的。

This strategy (dollar-cost averaging) is particular useful when investing with index which is diversified to eliminate individual risks. If your answer is yes when investing the US market, using the strategy can help you earn market return.

这种策略（定期定额投资）对于投资大盘指数非常有用，指数已经是分散投资没有单个股票的风险。如果你对美国市场有信心，利用这种投资能满足获得市场的回报。