What sort of extra fees do you pay when you trade your own account with a series 7 license? Any benefits? What about having your own 'broketage' when you are only trading your own money? Do you get lower bid ask spreads or anything?
If you are trading without a series seven, you are in violation of several trading laws. You might be subject to fines up to 2.5 times of your account value
I have my licenses but only because I was a sell side trader. When you represent a broker dealer, you need to be licensed in order to get paid (commissions, advisory fees, etc.). It has no benefit from a buy side, or investor, perspective. If you are looking for education, I’d consider the CFA. From a fee standpoint, I have to pay a lot more in fees to my brokers and research providers, as a licensed professional.
It's more important what benefits you derive through special tax treatment. Educational cost, commission, and research and data fees you can expense in many jurisdictions when having a special trader status. In Canada it makes total sense to run the trading account through a private entity when trading short term. In that way you can expense all trading related cost. And you don't count as professional if you just trade your own funds. Can't do that with a normal retail account. Tax rates are almost identical in the absence of other optimizations I don't want to get into.