buying stock on the secondary market is investment in an accounting sense, it's not investment in the sense people like to imagine of performing information work and endowing particular economic activity that otherwise would not occur by virtue of the finance provided. 1/

in the latter sense, no, mostly buying stock is not investment. people like to confuse the S=I accounting sense with the courageous entrepreneur information-work and useful real-economic risk sense, because it makes them feel better. but they are not the same. /fin