You described my exact day trading problem. So, the market taught me to take profit earlier and earlier until I became a scalper. I have no problem with long dated options though.
It’s a tough one. Markets change over time, they have really changed in the last 10 years. Quite a while back you could sit on a trade for day. But now I find it will always come back in your face, to solve this I trade bigger size and chase less ticks. Or play the waiting game and only trade really strong areas. But you won’t trade much. I’m a high frequency trader, I try and make 15 to 30 ticks a trade, but if it starts coming back at me I take the profit. Always take profit, don’t fall in love with a trade. Always and I mean always have a get out figure in your head and I know it’s so hard to get off a loser because you keep saying it will turn, but mostly it don’t, get off when it’s wrong. It’s not about what you make a day it’s always been about what you don’t lose.
And I read a post above where the guy said How can you get in a trade if you don’t know at what point to get out. It’s very true. Plan every trade. Double tops and bottoms are a good trade. But look where the next level of support or resistance is, they are not so hard to find, stick your out there. Because the market normally always tests the nearest level, but you will find it will come back at you a bit from them levels too. So take profit there, and if you’re still confident it’s up or down, then get in again a bit lower. Don’t worry if you miss the the next trade. That’s life, you will miss 100’s of good trades every day, just keep looking for the next level to get involved. Take profit, on your good trades and get off the bad ones quick. It takes a few months to get rid of bad habits and replace them with good habits. Get off the bad ones quick. Don’t get upset, just concentrate on the next trade.
In trading, I always try to move trades to breakeven when there are conditions for this from my trading strategy. Then I just pull up this breakeven and do not worry that I will get a loss or zero on the trade. This works very well in trend trading. I do not trade rollbacks, but wait for them to end to enter the market.