I always think of investment as chasing the dividends and speculation as chasing the capital gains. Investors prioritize Sharpe's and alpha, while speculators are more interested in beta. Investors want to grow a business, while speculators want to make money from their money.
While they may have the same meaning in a general sense, and are synonyms from a distance, once you get up close, you can distinguish meaning between them.
That's just how English works. Huge and colossal are the same until you pull out the D&D sourcebook, and then it turns out that colossal is bigger than huge.
You can't chase dividends without risk, it's all speculation. You're making a distinction without a real difference. All investment involves risk, all investment is thus speculation. Not all speculation is investment, gambling is speculating but not investing. That's just how English works.
Those words are different in my mind. They can be the same in yours, if that's the way you prefer it. We are not beholden to the Academy of English to use words only in an officially sanctioned manner.
While they may have the same meaning in a general sense, and are synonyms from a distance, once you get up close, you can distinguish meaning between them.
That's just how English works. Huge and colossal are the same until you pull out the D&D sourcebook, and then it turns out that colossal is bigger than huge.