Trade vs. Investment
"A dividend is a payment made by a corporation to its shareholders, usually as a distribution of profits."(Wikipedia encyclopedia). When a company makes a profit they have a choice of using that money to further the company and/or divide it among their shareholders. Investors are generally the ones who benefit greatly from this distribution of profits. A traders quick and untrustworthy commitment is not usually rewarded by a company at their end of year profits. Stock increases are especially good for traders because they can then sell and gain a profit. It is always good for investors, but it isn't as important in the moment as it is in the long run. When a stock decreases it is good for the trader to buy, but it is not good if the trader already bought the stock because then they are losing money and have to wait for it to go back up. A decreasing stock is never good for investors, but it still doesn't matter to them as much in the moment as it does in the long run. "2. a person or thing that causes a change"(the free dictionary). Catalysts are events that cause change. This mostly includes holidays, new products, competition rising or falling, etc. Trade is effected because they have to do their homework, and know when good things are about to come or go. They need to realize when their stock is about to decline, or incline, in a significant manner. In investments you need to invest wisely in a company that can ride out these events, or if they can't, you need to buy or sell so you can still turn a profit. Short selling is another trade  consisting of when there is a bet that the market is going to go down. This is a very risky business and I believe that traders would be more greatly inclined to attempt this than an investor. Mr. Kapptie talked of an 80% failure rate for this type of work. Not very many people are willing to risk gambling the market with their money involved.