Investors buy when the market is low, hold for a long time, and wish for the market to keep going up. For traders, the case is similar but a bit different. They wait for retracements and dips, buy when the market dips, and then wait for the market to go back up so that they can sell and make a profit. They don't wait for too long; even 5% per trade is more than enough for a trader, unlike investors who usually wait to get at least about 3x to 5x from their investments.
Trading can sometimes be more profitable than investing and holding because in trading, you can take quick profits and continue doing that as long as the market conditions allow you. Making a few trades a day and securing about 10% to 15% profits is more than enough because with that average, you can get more than 300% a month easily but only if you can do it effectively.
Many traders fail in trading because they don't understand the market very well. So market knowledge is extremely important for this.
It's a risk/reward type of deal, where you trade the stability of your investment for being able to play around much more than just holding and waiting it out.
I would choose to hold all day and night, however, I also see why many people become interested in trading and the markers for it.