An investor is a person who invests his (borrowed) funds in various projects, hoping to subsequently receive income. Projects that are funded by investors are called investment projects.
Risk is an integral part of investing. Its level directly depends on the type of investment; if the outcome is unsuccessful, the investor may lose all or part of his money.
Investors: who are they?
Any person with free financial resources can engage in investing. For many, this type of activity is a good opportunity to receive a stable additional income. Of course, there are people for whom investing has become the main source of funds. Receiving the so-called rent (the economic effect of investments), they invest fixed capital and live on interest. Such lucky people are called a rentier, and in order to become them, a tidy sum is needed.
The lifestyle of a rentier is that ideal that almost all investors strive for. After all, what could be better than watching how the money works for the owner, and not vice versa!
In addition to individuals, investment activities are conducted by intermediaries, organizations, funds, companies and the state itself.
Investors: qualification breakdown
Conventionally, all participants in the investment market can be divided into professional and non-professional investors. The first chose investing as their main labor activity. The latter make deposits only for additional income.
Professionals
The market of investors (professionals) is represented by speculators and managers. Speculators are engaged in extracting financial benefits from the sale of previously purchased currencies, stocks, bonds or other financial instruments. Their income is the difference between the cost of buying and selling. 
Professional managing investors (or investing companies) represent the interests of individuals or organizations wishing to invest their money profitably. Due to their qualifications, market knowledge and ability to use specific information, these investors are able to help investors increase their capital for the agreed fee.
Lay people
An unprofessional investor is:
- Independent contributor. He uses his experience and knowledge in the field of investment to select and apply the most effective strategy. The peculiarity of such investors is that they do not need to share their profits with anyone, but the risks also completely fall only on their shoulders.
- Non-independent investor. Such a person does not want or is not able to participate in the process of choosing a strategy for investing his funds. He uses the services of a professional broker who takes over the management of the investor's money.
Institutional classification
An individual investor is a private person working on his own behalf.
Institutional Investors represented by organizations, associations, foundations, companies and other legal entities. They are primarily interested in real estate, as well as various types of securities and metals. Such investors take part in a large number of large transactions. Their capital is almost half the cash of the New York Stock Exchange.
Most often, foreign investors participating financially in projects of other countries are institutional investors. By the way, the largest investor of this type is the International Monetary Fund.If the only field of activity of an organization is investing money, then it is called an investment investor. By and large, all investment funds are investment investors.
Separation of investors by work strategies
The goal of a strategic investor is to gain full control and influence on a particular joint-stock company.
A portfolio investor is a person or organization engaged in the formation of a portfolio of financial instruments. It takes into account the period, level of risk and liquidity of the securities of its portfolio. Investing money such an investor seeks to increase equity.
The activity of a speculative investor is to quickly conclude a large number of short-term transactions and to profit from successful transactions.
Investor Risk
In accordance with the tactics used in the process of investment activity, a separation can be made.
Risk investors prefer to choose financial instruments with the highest profitability and, accordingly, with the highest risk. Placing money in this way, they are aware that they can get radically opposite results: good profit or loss of all investments in case of an unsuccessful financial transaction.
Conservative investors. The style of work of such stock market participants is the choice of instruments with exclusively low risk. The formation of a portfolio of such investors takes a long time, and its tools often remain unchanged.
Moderate strategy. These investors are primarily determined with an acceptable level of risk, and then select the appropriate tools for their investment portfolio.
In addition to the described classification of investors, there is another: they can be domestic or foreign.
