The biggest difference between them is the duration of holding onto the stocks. An investor is more interested in the long-term appreciation , decides on historical rise in prices of the shares and generally not concerned about short-term fluctuations in prices as he is going to be invested for long time.
An investor relies mostly on Fundamental Analysis, which is the analytical method of predicting long-term prospects of a particular asset. Most investors adopt a "buy and hold" approach to shares, which simply means they buy shares of some company and hold onto them for a long time.
Let's consider someone who bought shares of XYZ Company at their peak value of around Rs.500 per share at the beginning of the year. Five years later, those shares may worth more or less according to company's performance.
Traders, on the other hand, are attempting to profit on just those short-term price fluctuations. The amount of time an active trader holds onto an asset is very short: in many cases minutes, or sometimes seconds. If you can catch just two index points on an average day, you can make a comfortable living as an Trader.Traders rely on Technical Analysis, a form of marketing analysis that attempts to predict short-term price fluctuations.
