TRADERS VERSUS INVESTORS, WHICH SHOULD YOU BE?

Just read an interesting article about traders beating out investors under current economic and market conditions.  While I agreed with some of their points, I think they ignored the fact that you don't necessarily have to be one or the other.  I firmly believe that there are merits to both and there are times when it's appropriate to trade stocks, as opposed to a simple buy and hold strategy.  So in my opinion, we should all be investors who also take advantage of a great trade when it comes along.  Although I consider myself a dividend investor, which entails buy and hold, I'm also quick to take advantage of decent capital gains.  Usually when I'm sitting on a large paper profit, I'll figure out how long it would take to earn the same amount through dividend payouts and then decide which I would rather do.  Sell the stock for immediate gains or hold and collect the dividends.  I've also cashed in on capital gains and turned around and repurchased shares of the same stock for the dividend payout when the share price has dropped back down. 

Not much news with my investment accounts this week.  Collected nice dividend payments from Merck (MRK:NYSE) and Ishares Preferred Index Fund (PFF:NASDAQ).  Took cash from Merck and reinvested dividend in PFF.  I'm working on building my position in PFF since they pay monthly dividends.  Want to keep my cash flow from dividends ever increasing and it doesn't hurt to have a few holdings who pay on a monthly basis.