The reality is, I am in trading mode because I am an impulsive character and I have too much time on my hands this summer. Definitely not a generally advisable plan although I've gotten much, much better at it than when I started.
Hey Newbie1022. Don't listen to the hodl trolls, now is the time to trade. (actually, always is the time to trade, if you can spend some time on it and are willing to learn).
That said, here's some advice I wish someone would have given me: Historically, Bitcoin greatly favored holding coins (which is why so many in here believe in pure buy & hold). So a lot of us heard about Bitcoin, got excited, bought in -- and them some of us started trading. The advice I consider extremely useful: don't trade with your entire position from the beginning. You should rarely go "all in" anyway because of risk control, but even the size of your trading account that you consider for individual order size should only be a fraction of your entire Bitcoin account, imo.
Say, you start with 10% of your Bitcoin account. Had a profitable month? Double that percentage. Made a loss, cut it in half. You get the idea. It's the "probation" period for you as a trader, and it allows you to, as you say, learn the ropes without incurring major losses through bad decisions.
However, since the situation is looking a lot more bearish now than a month ago imo, the default position of keeping the rest of your Bitcoin account in coins is maybe not the best advice either. But whatever you decide in that respect, I suggest to not actively (i.e. daily, or weekly) trade with the entire account, unless it is small enough that it really doesn't matter.