Trading and Investing are two different approaches with the same goal in mind: to achieve success in the financial markets. Both approaches require active interaction with the markets. Investing looks to achieve large returns over long-term holding of an asset, generally with a time span of at least five years. Trading, by contrast, is far more active and harnesses market volatility on a monthly, weekly, daily or even hourly basis to take more frequent, but typically smaller, profits on those individual positions.
Investing, as stated above, is a more passive approach to achieving the end goal of profit, where trading is a more active approach. The goal of trading is to out-perform the returns of investing, and on a much shorter time frame. Whereas Investors may typically be content with a 10-15% annual return, traders might seek to achieve that on a monthly basis. As such, successful trading can easily be a full-time occupation and an opportunity to live a financially independent lifestyle in the now, whereas investing takes a long-term approach and is generally a side project for those generating their active income from another source.