Stock Trading vs. Investing Trading and investing both involve seeking profit in the stock market, but they pursue that goal in different ways.  Traders jump in and out of stocks within weeks, days, even minutes, with the aim of short-term profits. They often focus on a stock’s technical factors rather than a company’s long-term prospects. What matters to traders is which direction the stock will move next and how the trader can profit from that move.  Investors have a longer-term outlook. They think in terms of years and often hold stocks through the market’s ups and downs.