elpollo, who is your CPA, I'm interviewing & looking for one who does traders and setting up entities in NY.
I'm not a CPA. That said, the only penalty you will pay is an interest rate on the money you owe. The rate is somewhere around 4 or 5% the last time I checked. The interest is calculated from the time the money is owed and stops the day the IRS receives your check. I don't know what you mean by "huge" penalty. Maybe a 4-5% annual rate is huge to you, but at least you should keep the penalty in perspective. If you are making more than that per year, then it may be worth hanging on to your trading capital until the last minute. Only you can do that math.
The penalty is most decidedly NOT 1% per month. It's less than half that. Now, the state of CT (for example) charges 1% per month. But, not the Feds.