For a beginner in my opinion mining is far better, because trading without knowledge could be even more risky, and if you are just starting with bitcoin and other cryptos you will have to invest, and we want our invests to stay as secure as possible right?
Is it hard to start mining? Not really, what you need is one decent GPU like GF 1060/1070/1080 or 1070ti/1080ti if you can afford it, or from AMD side RX 480/RX 580. Then you calculate if mining specific coin with price per kWh in your country is affordable, check what coins are best to mine with your card, download nicehash, minergate or other mining software (beware of scams and viruses) and start mining. If you are thinking about some serious mining rig, you will need more than 1 GPU, in my opinion at least 6, good luck.