[Nick1984]

I can't speak directly about the US because your tax laws differ from ours in Australia but I know don't use H&R Block they suck the big one. I've paid them $150 bucks for a basic tax time deduction number crunch and they came up with $30 bucks of deductions once..... go figure.

In the USA if you conduct 30 round trip trader within a year do you get classified as a professional trader? Here in Aus if you do, then you get your tax rate capped at 30% and no medicare levy. Also your losses become tax deductible which is a bonus.

If there is a similar system in the US, then you can use your favourable taxation position to siphon off your excess profits and direct them into long term investments such as managed funds or shares which can produce tax effective income streams as well to further help reduce the overall volatilty of your income.

[Minis Trader]

You need a guy that knows his stuff. I have seen many traders get nailed from the IRS for poor records and deductions they could not take. I know one individual that made over 3000 trades in 9 months, he took the last 3 months of the year off for a reward and when filed his taxes he claimed "Trader Status" and it was denied. The guy made his entire income from trading, he did it more than any other activity but when he took 3 months off he didnt qualify.

It is best to get yourself structured (Nevada or Wyoming) and go from there.
Just make sure that the people you use to set you us and the accountant you use is a business accountant so you can take full advantage of the tax laws available to businesses in this country.
Later