One strong advantage of the west coast, which I forgot to mention, is that the regular markets close at 1:00pm instead of 4:00pm like the east coast. So while I have to get up earlier, I can finish my working day considerably earlier too. That part I like.
I love this place but it's economically in a shitty spot. Most the nazdaq stocks you see suffer are here. Taxes are high and living extenses are very high still. Northern Ca is in a tech depression. Forget about recession or not !!!! If you think you can make it in trading full time - there are better places to go. Prop firms in CA don't finance you - at least not to my understanding. Of course if you find a firm to bankroll you you can in theory work part time in CA (or in the west coast). This is the advange of the Time Zone.
I love trading out of CA. State taxes are high, but the benefits with weather, etc. outweighs the downsides. Make sure your family understand that you need to be at your desk at 6:30. There are several trading firms in LA (most in Irvine). Bright have several office in the greater San Francisco area. I have no experience with any of them. Also, with the good weather almost year round and the market closing at 1 pm it allows for lots of outdoor activities. I need to decompress after trading, so that's a major plus as well.
I know of firms that have professional trading and backed trading in San Diego, LA and San Francisco. Of course in this current market, which is tough for scalping, in order for one of these firms to back you you would probably have to have a profitable record. ( and if you have been profitable why would you need backing). Nevertheless, I know of more than one firm in each of the above cites. One is my firm, in San Diego, and two of them are firms that were started by guys I used to trade with, (we all broke off from bright 4-6 years ago. One group has about 20 plus traders and one group has about 60 -70 when I last knew. If you are a serious trader I could give you the names of these other offices. And since I know rob tharp and he told me about this board I should mention he said was planning to open in an office in San Diego as well. So you see there is plenty of trading in Ca. In fact there was plenty of excellent trading in California as many of the guys I know had big years last year. (Since the spring it has been tougher). However, the CA state tax does tick me off and sometimes Monday morning does seem to be a little early.