Bitcoin Cash totally different from BTC? I hear everyone talking as if when you have Bitcoin it is a matter of transferring in order to access your Bitcoin Cash instead of trading like other coins.

I was under the impression that it was an entirely separate coin and one would obtain it in the same way that one would obtain Ethereum if he had bitcoin by trading it correct? 

Or if you have bitcoin do you at the same time have that much in BCC and it just needs to be moved somewhere?
BTC and BCC share a transaction history. Thus, to each blockchain, anyone holding a coin before the split has a coin in their address on each blockchain.