In finance, speculation's a financial action that doesn't promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the . Speculation typically involves the lending of money or the purchase of assets, equity or debt but in a manner that hasn't been given thorough analysis or's deemed to have low margin of safety or a significant risk of the loss of the principal investment. The term, "speculation," which's formally defined as above in Graham and Dodd's 1934 text, Security Analysis, cont… (More on Speculation)