The term stock trader typically refers to someone who frequently buys and sells stocks to capitalize on daily price fluctuations. These short-term traders are betting that they can make a few rupees in the next minute, hour, days or month, rather than buying shares in a blue-chip company to pass along to their grand kids someday.
Stock trading can be further refined based on certain criteria:
Active trading is what an investor who places 10 or more trades per month does. Typically, they use a strategy that relies heavily on timing the market, trying to take advantage of short-term events (at the company level or based on market fluctuations) to turn a profit in the coming weeks or months.
Day trading is the strategy employed by investors who play hot potato with stocks — buying, selling and closing their positions of the same stock in a single trading day, caring little about the inner workings of the underlying businesses. (Position refers to the amount of a particular stock or fund you own.) The aim of the day trader is to make a few bucks in the next few minutes, hours or days based on daily price fluctuations