speculation is different than investing...for example:
people who invest in companies are buying equity in the existing products, profitability, productivity, and reputation of a corporation whose boards of directors they have a legal right to question...people who speculate on oil futures contracts are betting on a non-existant future price of a commodity they will never see, nor have a say in how they are managed

the time frame is different too, as noted above...risky speculation is short term - in and out like a bandit...there's a lot of corruption there in part because the regulators/investigators lag time exceeds the short term speculation time