Deciding between being a trader or an investor matters because it defines how much time and energy you need. It also helps you determine what to learn and what tools you should use. 

The most important decision you may make as an investor is to decide whether you are investing based on the strength of a stock as a company, or just based on price. These are very different approaches. For the first option, you would need to focus on measuring the quality of a stock as a company. In contrast, for the second approach, you would only invest based on price predictions. For example, at Stock Card, we only invest based on the strength of a company. We don't believe in price predictions. You need to decide which one is better for you.

Let's get a bit deeper:

Trading:

Trading is time-consuming, and you need to be on your toes to figure out what is going to impact the stock prices next.

Investing:
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Investors can take it slower. As an investor, you do not need to check the news all the time. You can evaluate a company for its greatness and not pay too much attention to the daily price fluctuations. 

Summary:
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When you are new to the stock market, it gets a lot easier if you decide whether you are a trader or an investor, at first. You’d be focusing on learning about one of those approaches. 

Action: When it comes to the stock market, you always would want to narrow down your focus. Success in the stock market is about focusing and not getting distracted.