"Investing" in those days was "speculating." Hundreds of dubious companies made it to IPO that would never make it that far today, and most of those lost all their public investors' money.
Well, Snap is losing $2 billion a quarter... how's that not a dubious IPO?... Uber's market cap is now 1/3 of WalMart a company with 485.9 billion in revenues.
For comparison, Webvan hit $8 billion market cap, losing $400 million a year, Uber's on $69 billion (hasn't even IPOd yet) losing $3 billion last year.
John Bogle's investment philosophy [0], which I agree with, boils down the difference between investing and speculating to the time horizon: "The main difference between investment and speculation lies in the time horizon."
So in a way, I think you and the parent are both right -- you are talking about different sides of the same thing.
Another one of Bogle's self serving comments. He's a legend but rarely unbiased. The key difference is the speculator buys it purely in the hope of flipping it. The investor considers the fundamentals of the investment. Time horizon is irrelevant. You can have special sits which you are in and out of in a month or so; but it's definitely an investment.
We are all hoping to flip our investments in the equities market; no one is holding forever. Unless you intend to die and pass your ownership interest to heirs.
Buffett's favorite holding period is forever. Cuban points out that non-dividend stocks aren't much more than baseball cards. Kiyosaki argues that the reason people suffer financially is that they purchase liabilities and list them under the asset column.
The difference between investing and speculating is whether you get paid for owning it or only for finding a greater fool to relieve you of it. The wheels have come off the equities market because management has realized putting on a convincing show for speculators nets more dumb money than actually succeeding as a business worth owning.
For comparison, Webvan hit $8 billion market cap, losing $400 million a year, Uber's on $69 billion (hasn't even IPOd yet) losing $3 billion last year.