risk vs speculation

risk

noun
  • A financial product (typically an investment). 

  • A possible adverse event or outcome. 

  • A borrower (such as a mortgage-holder or person with a credit card). 

  • An entity insured by an insurer. 

  • The potential negative effect of an event, determined by multiplying the likelihood of the event occurring with its magnitude should it occur. 

  • The magnitude of possible loss consequent to a decision or event. 

  • The probability of a negative outcome to a decision or event. 

  • A type of adverse event covered under an insurance policy. 

  • A thing (from the perspective of how likely or unlikely it is to cause an adverse effect). 

verb
  • To incur risk as a result of (doing something). 

  • To incur risk of harming or jeopardizing. 

  • To incur risk of (something). 

speculation

noun
  • An investment involving higher-than-normal risk in order to obtain a higher-than-normal return. 

  • The act or process of reasoning a priori from premises given or assumed. 

  • A conclusion to which the mind comes by speculating; mere theory; notion; conjecture. 

  • The act or practice of buying land, goods, shares, etc., in expectation of selling at a higher price, or of selling with the expectation of repurchasing at a lower price; a trading on anticipated fluctuations in price, as distinguished from trading in which the profit expected is the difference between the retail and wholesale prices, or the difference of price in different markets. 

  • A card game in which the players buy from one another trumps or whole hands, upon a chance of getting the highest trump dealt, which entitles the holder to the pool of stakes. 

  • The process of thinking or meditating on a subject. 

  • The process of anticipating which branch of code will be chosen and executing it in advance. 

How often have the words risk and speculation occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )