This question from Trading chief ilustrates very succinctly the diference between an investor and a trader.

People like sinclair who are GOLD bugs are investors, long term. they like the long term trend for gold, likely have a lot of wealth and will own it long term. this deleveraging that is going on now is simply noise to them. In a few months or a year Gold and Gold stocks will be back on their run up and they will be no worse for wear. They are not concerned about short term fluctuations.

Another good example is Jim Rogers who is so bullish on china, he actually moved there. He now lives in Shanghai I believe. He says that "owning China right now is like owning US stocks in 1908". He's probably right and he is not the least bit concerned with what has happened to Chinese markets over the past year. He is still holding.

a Trader on the other hand is concerned about short term trends and will use them (both up and down) to make a profit... which is where the trading chief question comes from.

The problem arises because the average Joe forgets that Gold and other commodities are on a long term up trend when the POG drops 30% in 6 months and because of that they usually buy and sell at the wrong time. Unless you are a trader, you should be less concerned with what's happening this month and more concerned about what it will be in a year or 2.

Another problem is "long term" could mean many things to different people. For the gold bugs it's probably 3 to 5 years, for the average joe it's probably 3 to 6 months when it should be 3 to 5 years ... or longer.

Jim Rogers is in his 70s andhe's talking about China over the next 50 years ...