Better XP
Better no the quickest and safest way is to trade ,but you can also make experience poding other players however unless you are well trained in this aspect of the game you will find it quite frustrating as you will likely be podded yourself more often than not and lose what experience you have built up already I suggest if you do decide to hunt that you join a decent alliance and ask a vet player to take you under his wing .
Shadow
If you're good you can get more exp from killing than trading. But most of us aren't... However there is more to the game than experience. Who cares of you get 5k/day like you used to do in your IST if you're having a blast fighting and possibly dying to all the vet hunters? As long as you can afford it...