Both will be considered as an investment, but the thing will be based on our assumptions. Each person will have a different view about the trading and investment because some people will always for the long term investment, so people who wait for the long term will always get the benefit through their investment.
Usually, there are fixed profits for long term investment if you have made investments in a potential coin. Short term profits might vary depending on the market conditions. Mostly, newbies can start with investments for long term as it would also force them to speculate the graphs and eventually they could even start with trading if they feel they have gained some knowledge about the charts and patterns.
Trading might give us good profits but the risk would remain high in trading as compared to investments. I am not saying that investments have no risk but the risk can be adjusted depending on the coin you invest and at which price you entered. Investing in newly launched projects can be fetal so yes, there are a lot of hidden risks associated with investing as well.