You can loose all in trading only if you are not watching market actively as if price starts going down then you can sell them on the spot with a little loss and in that case you will not loose everything and in trading you have an opportunity to make quick profits which is not possible with investments.
i think if we are loss in trading, we are only loss the amount of the btc but we still have value of the coins and in the next hour or day or weeks, we can make nice profit so i think what we can do is only waiting. in investing, we can make profit too but the profit is not for short term and we need to find a recommended investment programs so we are safe from getting scam.
Both options are good, but each one has its own risks, the last weeks almost all altcoins went up, after bitcoin be above 1000 dollars since December, the altcoins market were somehow frozen, this year all altcoins are trying to get their new value against the bitcoin.
I do see trading as investment, since we have to wait a good period and some pump or good news to the coin.