So you need about 50% more than the notional value of an ES contract in order to trade one contract? You're really going places, aren't you?
Ask yourself this. Why is buying and hold in the stock/equity market is less risky than trading in the es or futures/commodity market? Why is buying and hold in the es is risky than buying and hold an Apple stock?
Na, you do not need 1mil or 500,00 to succeed. The problem is in people's expectations. The person starting out trading with $10,000 want to turn it into $100,000 overnight or within a short period of time. Now the beginning trader has no clue how to turn $10,000 into $15,000 consistently so they will fail miserably. On the other hand the person starting out with $500,000 or 1 mil could potentially have a different mindset and knows that he only needs to risk a very small amount per trade to make a large amount of money and good return for his risk. Now only if the person having a $10,000 account had the correct mindset and expectations. Then they can actually start compounding the account at a more reasonable 5% - 10% a month which is doable. Then they would be on a much better track to building a nice account and making a large amount of money.
The problem with underleveraging that even when you are right, you make nothing. Sure it is safe, but the return is less than just putting your money into the bank. Our OP makes 3 ES pts per month, in a good month. that is 36 pts per year, or $1800 return on a 100K capital. In my book that is less than 2% annual return. That's what you get with underleveraging...
emg has a $2,000,000 account, so he makes 20 times what you stated, that is $36,000 before taxes, commisions and fees per year. Good thing is he lives with his parents, and they still cover his expenses, including internet access to post his calls in ET (not trades because by now everybody reading this has figured out emg does not trade or gamble or anything). He is a very risk averse buffoon, as you have cleverly stated.
Good thing his parents will cover his living expenses, even after he eventually catches a crash that doesn't recover on the same day and loses 100% of his papertrading account.