trade vs. trading

[sora1999]

Hello.
What is the difference between trade and trading as nouns?
Is it that trading only denotes action while trade can be either action or the amount of trading done?
How abount in the compounds, like online trade and online trading? Is there any preference?
Awaiting your helping replies.
sora

[Rover_KE]

It's a tricky question, sora, which probably explains why you have not received any answers.

Your own interpretation is as good as any I could have thought of.

'Online trading' seems to be more common.

Rover

[5jj]

I'm afraid Rover's right, sora. I started to write a response when I first read your post - and gave up, because I couldn't believe in what I was writing. I sense a difference, but I can't explain it. I tried a few dictionaries, but they were not very helpful.