As far as trading goes I've never done it so it's completely new to me. My though was mixing mining and trading so I'm just trying to get some input from people more experienced than I am.
that is, in my opinion, the best way to go.
i am mostly trading but i have been studying how mining works and i will be running my first rig (most probably) next year in at least 2 or 3 months. i believe one of the main things to make mining (specifically mining altcoins since that is what i will be doing) is to know how to trade them. sometimes you can even switch to mining the one that is being pumped so that you can maximize your profit before others get in and start mining it. then switch to another one.