What is the differenec between these two boards (apart from the fact that one costs money to use)? Are they actually separate?

StonyB has summed it up perfectly.

I think that a lot of the comments here are true, the traders room is generally to do with (very) short term trading on margin. However there are also a lot of people who like to swing trade, run positions for several days / weeks, and we do have a thread about stocks to swing trade in a PEP / ISA / SIPP wrapper.

As has also been said, the traders thread is generally a very friendly place to be, anyone who steps out of line is politely corrected although that rarely happens. A lot, but not all of the posters have met at some time, usually MoneyAM's traders meetings. The level of help and support is great. Newcomers are welcomed warmly. Give it a try, aanyone asking a question usually gets a helpful reply, no matter how stupid the q seems at the time - we were all there once.

I think I should visit the investors thread more often, but I only have so much time in the day.

Oh and it was me that took a 2p profit on sctn, but I also took a 3p profit on sctn later in the day, total 3p, but on margin that earned me 5% approx. on my capital. Yes, pure speculating, but often highly profitable if done well - ie by others than me!!! And I was working.

When I first signed up at the 'other place' i joined the free bb.
I quickly realized that i wasn't going to learn much there as there were too many idiots posting and cluttering up the board. I changed to the 'premium' board where the posters were more experienced and serious (apart from a notable few).
On this site however the posters on the 'investors' bb are quite civilized and experienced so although i have been a beta tester on the 'traders' bb i didn't feel it necessary to renew when MAM finally asked me for monry.
I think the only difference is that the contributors to the 'traders' bb are prepared to pay the 5 pm fee and us 'investors' aren't.