Trading is described as the direct act of exchanging one commodity for another. In ancient time where barter was the rule, people and merchants used to trade without mediums of exchange.  It was only later in human history that mediums of exchange such as money, allowed the bearer to purchase a commodity without actually offering another commodity in return. As societies became more stable and sophisticated, the use of money became widely spread until it replaced the age old barter system.  In modern times you no longer have to pay your butcher 2 loafs of bread for a kilo of meat. .. Instead you would be using money.  As the trade system evolved and changed over time so did the definition of trading.  The term trading has become broader in its definition and often refers to activities other than barter trading.  Today almost anything can be traded and often the goal is to accumulate profits in the form of the medium of exchange – money, you are no longer required to poses large quantity of a commodity to be considered wealthy.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the financial markets.  Millions of contracts representing various commodities are exchanged on daily basis via the electronic gateways between buyers and sellers, who neither see the counter party of the transaction nor posses the underlying commodity.  Further more most of those market participants have never been in close contact with those commodities and have little or nothing to do with its production.

Indeed the word Trading is becoming more synonymous with the word speculating. Traders are seen as speculators who attempt to benefit from the market by profiting from price differences in commodities and other financial instruments.