speculator

noun

spec·​u·​la·​tor ˈspe-kyə-ˌlā-tər 

plural speculators

: someone who speculates: such as

a

: a person who thinks or guesses especially in an idle or casual way about something that is unknown or uncertain

I sat Friday night in the dining room in front of my laptop, the TV in the next room flitting among experts and speculators about what happened in Paris …

—Scott Martelle

"… All that we ought to ask, therefore, is, that the witnesses of our conduct, and the speculators on our motives, should be capable of taking the highest view which the circumstances of the case may admit. …"

—Nathaniel Hawthorne

b

: a person who makes a relatively risky investment in something (such as stocks or real estate) in the hope of making a large short-term profit from market fluctuations

futures/currency speculators

By the late 1870s Edward Pray was living in New York City, still interested in mining but instead now as a speculator in mining stocks.

—Willa Kane

Over the years, many houses have been bought by speculators or real estate companies and rented out.

—Margaret Gillerman

Examples of speculator in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

So long as there is an ample supply of speculators willing to trade the tokens, flush zombie blockchains will continue to roam the digital landscape. —Steven Ehrlich, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2024

And the historic rally has drawn in speculators, exacerbating the price volatility. —Alina Selyukh, NPR, 29 Mar. 2024

That is to say, while investors buy assets based on the prospects of the underlying operations only after thorough research, speculators merely buy trendy assets hoping someone else will pay more for them at some point down the line. —Bywill Daniel, Fortune, 17 Mar. 2024

His research shows that outside speculators and absentee landlords also amassed huge amounts of land and water while people of color were systematically excluded, condemning most to eventual poverty. —Janet Wilson, ProPublica, 9 Nov. 2023

The turbulence has turned many people into reluctant speculators, their lives ruled by uncertainty and rumors. —Nada Rashwan, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024

Excessive call option buying is indicative of speculators running amok. —Moneyshow, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024

Traditionally, Egyptians have bought gold jewelry as a long-term saving strategy, but speculators have now turned to coins and ingots to try to turn a quick profit, said Saeed Imbaby, the founder of iSagha, a gold trading platform. —Nada Rashwan, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024

Uncertainty then spiked with the multifaceted crisis of 1992, when corruption scandals upended politics, currency speculators destabilized the lira, and the sustainability of the government’s finances came into doubt. —Barry Eichengreen, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024

Word History

Etymology

speculate + -or entry 1; in earlier sense "observer, lookout," borrowed from Latin speculātor "scout, spy, sentinel," from speculārī "to keep a close watch on, spy out, watch for" + -tor, agent suffix — more at speculate

First Known Use

1555, in the meaning defined above