Read about Speculators, Edger's, Arbitrageurs

Investors in financial markets are broadly categorized on the basis of time horizon of their investments.

Investors:

Equity is an investment tool where there is no stipulated time period within which investment has to be made and hence suitable for investors who invest with a certain objective in their mind and for relatively longer time horizon.

Derivative instruments comprising of Futures and Options are basically, trading and hedging instruments that are suitable for:

Hedgers:

They are participants of derivative markets who have got exposure to underlying asset and wish to manage the risk by taking counter positions in F&O markets.

Speculators:

They are market participants who account for about 70% of total market participants and take very short term view on the future direction of the market or stock and accordingly build positions in F&O.

Arbitrageurs:

They are participants who take positions to earn riskless profits by taking two different positions in the same or different contracts (i.e., across calendar periods) or on different exchanges (i.e., across exchanges) to en-cash on mispricing opportunities.