I feel that if you invest in storage you have given yourself the opportunity to take advantage of basis improvements. However, if you store everything it is very possible that the futures price will not be desirable at a time when the basis is desirable. Therefore, to fully take advantage of storage, you need additional tools. Like you say, this can be provided by HTA, but then you are locked in to a specific end user which may limit your ability to take advantage of swings in basis.

I realize that there is going to be a difficult emotional aspect of trading on my own. Very few profitable things are easy. That's why I'm trying to learn.