ICO's are very good way to make money. You can get the coins a low price, hold them then make a profit. But beware, a lot of scam ICO's exist too. You will need to look into them before jumping to any decisions.
Yeah in my opinion, it is much more riskier than trading. Because you don't know how will the ICO would go after it has gone to exchange. They are sometimes profitable but not all the time.