Even with the fee increases, wouldn't the tax benefit of the futures trading be greater than the taxes paid on trading the ETF shares?
In the late 90’s to 2005 I was a size proprietary trader in Chicago. Mostly Eurex and LIFFE. Of course I was a spread trader. Schatz, Bobl, Bunds, Gilts, Short Sterling, Euribor... I traded hundreds of thousands of contracts per month. And I would cut your throat for five cents. And I was a high frequency spread trader so that went with the territory. But the biggest obstacle I saw for scalpers taking it from a minimum wage job to a high dollar white collar profession was over trading. I know for a fact that dozens of those firms kept scalpers on the payroll who were taking home minimum wage when it was all said and done - but the firms were earning several thousand dollars per month on the haircut. OVER TRADING is the biggest barrier for traders making it on the screen. It is not at all a good thing that you can sit there with a mouse and get in and out of the market once every eight minutes over the course of a trading session. That’s my own observation - seeing hundreds and hundreds of traders come and go, most blow out and a few stay and make their mark. I wish everyone good fortune, and this is just my own personal observations over a long time seeing many hundreds of traders come and go.
If I lease membership or a seat(IOM), can I only trade my own accounts? What if I trade but only accounts from my wife, or my children?