speculator vs hedger

speculator and hedger both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
speculator	Yes	No	No	No
hedger	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, hedger is a hyponym of speculator; that is, hedger is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than speculator:

speculator: someone who risks losses for the possibility of considerable gains
hedger: someone who counterbalances one transaction (as a bet) against another in order to protect against loss

Other hyponyms of speculator include operator, scalper, venture capitalist.

speculator (noun)	hedger (noun)
someone who risks losses for the possibility of considerable gains	a gardener who takes care of and trims hedges
someone who makes conjectures without knowing the facts	someone who counterbalances one transaction (as a bet) against another in order to protect against loss
	a respondent who avoids giving a clear direct answer