They disallow taking profit on trades before a specific time has passed because they don't want active trading. This is common in certain financial companies, I'll let you figure out which kind.
It would have saved us all a lot of time if you had mentioned early on here that your potential job does not allow you to daytrade ES futures.
So you are down to two choices. One in which you are guaranteed 252K net, provided market conditions remain the same, or 400K net or something if you take the job, with no chance of losing money. Your choice seems clear. Take the job.
Think hard about why they might "beg" (they didn't beg, I just said I'm very happy and it will take a lot to move.)
I thought I did say that I'm not allowed to... But perhaps I only thought I said it. Yep. Even if trading doesn't work, I still have consulting which itself is also ~guaranteed 200-300K gross. This was my pros/cons list as I was thinking through it (the red is really personal!):
To me that meant that you you could not be in front of the monitors or whatever. It did not say to me that you were restricted by regulation. Oi!
Why would anyone vote for one of the under ten million options, assuming they have the ability to, more or less, surpass the ten million mark? Ten million may sound astronomical, but if you break it down to months, weeks, days....that's only $39,526/trading day. Assuming the trader is wise, calm, patient, experienced, and knowledgeable with a sound strategy and mind....that's, rather, somewhat, very doable and accomplish-able. It's a relatively simple matter of growing and compounding an account. Let it do its thing.
Shame you won't provide more details, but I of course understand. Can I ask though how discretionary your entry criteria is? (or perhaps its just automatic where you fire off the trade and whatever happens, happen?) Trading S&R is of course I think where the money is, but what I find interesting is that you say you're looking to short a break of support, whereas I am always looking to buy. I see you outline 2 areas with red arrow. Are these places where you took a short? The first time it broke through before the first red arrow, it didn't go too far down before quickly going back above. Would this be a case of one of those 5 trades that lost?
It's not discretionary, I look for markers to tell me what people are doing and then I try to get in at good points. You will lose, that's just what happens. When I lose it's usually the following: 1. I was wrong in my analysis (very rare) 2. Dumb entry (most common)