Q&A trading hurdle

QUESTION:

(excerpt from email): "I was wondering if you have any advice for my situation- over the past year, I've worked hard on what we went through last year and I'm at the stage where I can find, and actually trade, the momentum reversal (a very specific version of it) which leaves me regularly calling tops and bottoms within a few ticks (sometimes 1 or 2 cents in stocks above $50) the probability of it "working" is extremely high, it's rare that it doesn't return at least the risk, however I just can't get it to work for me. I scale out in such a fashion that I'm basically losing money slowly over time even though I'm regularly taking fantastic entries on trades that fairly frequently go on to return my risk many times over (as much as 16R in the last couple of weeks).

So I find myself feeling really frustrated. Still have most of my money as I haven't done anything stupid (lol) but I'm not sure where to go from here."

Answer:

"Here is what I would suggest: When you get into a trade, or even beforehand when possible (ideally), write down what your targets are. Then when you place the trade put orders on the books with bracket orders for trades at those price points. Do this in sort of "do or die" mode for several days and review your results. When you fail to stick to your plan and make changes despite trying to do "do or die" then compare those results to what you had written as your targets. This will help you build confidence in holding to those levels and over time should get you through that block. Keep me posted! All my best, Toni"