Anyone buying bitcoin now and expecting to get profits from holding will have at minimum to wait months or even years for that to happen, there is now way this can be classified as a form of trading as at most a trade could last a few weeks and at most a month, and even if a trader did something like that it means that during the time they made those moves they were not really thinking as a trader but as an investor.
There are differences between traders and investors. But, you could always have it together at the same time, how? Well, if you want to buy something and 15 minutes after you buy, that thing goes up in price then you could sell and make a profit.
But, if you are buying something and then it goes down, then you could hold it for a year and then sell it for a profit. You are the same person, and you bought the same thing, but depending on what the outcome is, you turn out to be a trader or an investor. This is why it is not really that much of a big difference between the two, the difference is what happens meanwhile. If you are willing to do it, then it's fine.
While the difference may seem small I think it is big enough to cause a lot of trouble for those that are unprepared and do not have the skills necessary to do something like this, after all we know that no one is perfect and we can make mistakes, so the example that you are giving happens a lot as a trader refuses to sell their coins as they go down in value and then they find themselves with so much losses they need to hold their coins in order to eventually become profitable, however the mentality of a long term holder and a trader are completely different so the chances that a trader will learn how to hold their coins for such a long period of time is very low, as it is way more likely they will get desperate and sell for a very low price.