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Financial speculation, involves the buying, holding, selling, and short-selling of stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, collectibles, real estate, derivatives, or any valuable financial instrument to profit from fluctuations in its price as opposed to buying it for use or for income via methods such as dividends or interest. Speculation or agiotage represents one of four market roles in Western financial markets, distinct from hedging, long- or short-term investing, and arbitrage. Convention, and especially satire, sometimes portray speculators comically as speculating in pork bellies (in which a real market and real speculators exist) and often "losing their shirts" or making a fortune on small market changes. Speculation exists in many such commodities, but, if measured by value, the most important markets deal in futures contracts and other derivatives involving leverage that can transform a small market movement into a huge gain or loss. Most non-professional traders lose money on speculation, while those who do make money tend to become professionals.[citation needed] Occasionally some dramatic event will occur, such as the effort of the Hunt brothers to corner the silver market or the currency speculations of George Soros or the speculative trading of Nick Leeson, which caused the collapse of Barings Bank.
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