traktor or ableton

i need some advice here. i've been using audacity for years to put mixes together and edit tracks a bit. i'm trying to have a bit more fun by looping and remixing some stuff so i've been trying out some better software like ableton and traktor. keep in mind i'm no dj - just wanting to put some funky mixes together with what i see on my computer screen (no headphones or controllers). audacity was good in the way i could just drag the waveforms around. i've been trying these programs for weeks, and am still pretty lost. i'm going to probably fork some money over for a tutorial dvd, so i don't want to waste time or money on the wrong software.
i'm getting comfortable with traktor and its layout, but i'm finding i'll need to spend money on a soundcard and midi mixer to really make it work.. its obviously designed more to be played out in 'real time'. theres no dragging waveforms around until you get it right.
when i started to get this feeling i switched over to ableton for a try and got blown away from its complexity. i'm getting absolutely nowhere with this one. i'm pretty sure in the arrangement view it will work more like audacity with dragging waveforms around so i'm tempted to trudge on with this one.
any thoughts?

If you could specify a few things I'll try to help

are you looking to make pre-recorded mixes or live mixes?

I use Serato as DVS so Im not very familiar with Traktor but without a controller or turntable/cdj-soundcard setup I don't know how it can be very effective for the type of things youre trying to do, maybe you could elaborate more on how you've been using it

I'm an ableton noob too and slowly learning it, and agree its intimidatingly complex, the tutorials that come with the software are ok for getting a very basic feel for how things are laid out and built, further than that youtube has tons of tutorials available, and of course there are tooltips when you mouse over just about any portion of the ableton interface

Traktor is entirely designed for live performance by DJ's - in essence it's a set of virtual decks, although there are obviously a lot of added features.

Ableton is also intended for live use, but is less specifically a DJ tool and more a very conveniently arranged sequencer. From the little that you've said it sounds like it would be more what you're looking for, but it does have a learning curve, and while its control system is excellent it's not necessarily intuitive to begin with.

Both are better with external sound cards and in particular a midi controller - in the case of Traktor I don't really see any usefullness without having a controller.

i maself are a serato user
but a friend of me got VDJ RMX YouTube - THE HERCULES RMX

tuff one to install but once installed you can juggle with one finger while the other hand in your pocket

i don't think i would buy this because i already own serato, and for my opinion also a lil bit unstable
never the less its a nice toy to have at home
also with a good record feature