Taxes are just one part of the equation. And yes, you do give up a big tax advantage. However, you get to trade at member rates, direct lines to exchanges, bloomberg, reuters, analyst, full-time IT support, etc., as well as, access to some massive size. So depending on your trading style, it might be worth the trade-off.
Just the cost of getting a membership at each of the exchanges I regularly trade on would be outrageous. It would be impossible at this point to trade the way I trade from home on my own.
I'm not going to sit here and explain all the benefits. Bottom line is most of these shops have many traders making multiple millions of dollars. The traders still choose to stay with a crappy tax situation on top of giving up a decent percentage of profits to the company. There is a reason they all just don't leave when thier contracts are up.
I just want to know when one is going to open in LA.
And it's a little higher success rate than 1 out of 10. Not much higher these days but a little bit.