In the USA buying of Initial Public Offerings of stock is tightly controlled for the profit of the "underwriters" and their favored clients.  Absent strong rules to control this behavior, a better measure of "investing" vs. "speculation" could be the length of time the stock is held.  I would suggest that the capital gains tax be set to decline by 2% per year down to a fixed value around 20% after seven years.  Selling loosing stocks would not be penalized and holding winners would be rewarded.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."