You're to be congratulated on starting. Most people can't get that far. However, it's important that you start correctly, and unfortunately, in at least some respects, you're starting off on the wrong foot. Or feet.
1. You say you didn't follow the rules "exactly". This is of course necessary. If one can't or doesn't or won't follow the rules exactly, then he is trading according to some other approach. Or by feel. If the other approach has been thoroughly-tested and is consistently-profitable, great. Otherwise the trader will just spin his wheels. Or take off in reverse.
2. I don't know what you mean by "instinctive reactions", but in your original post, you wrote that
As I still have the training wheels on I'm using a SB account to execute my trades. I have a small account open. I chose to do this not because I want to make money so much as I think I need to experience the emotions and natural reactions you get when actual money is at stake. I have tried to use demo accounts but I don't think they work for me because the emotions aren't there.
First, you should't be trading at all given that this is something new to you. To do so reflects a profound disrespect for money. Such an attitude will revisit you sooner or later, most likely sooner.
Second, there are no "natural reactions". There is nothing natural about reactions that are borne out of fear and/or lack of study and preparation. They are entirely avoidable. Nor is there any need to experience emotions. If there is any need at all, it is to trade emotionlessly. You say that demo accounts don't work for you because the emotions aren't there, but that's one of the chief objectives of a demo account. If you suddenly become emotional when you're trading for real, then you are either using the demo account incorrectly or you have not yet come to terms with your fear. Probably both.
Inadequate preparation, unfamiliarity with your trading system, and fear will all combine to sabotage you at every turn. Becoming a SLAyer requires more than good intentions. Simple, yes. Easy, no.
I write in the book that
the trading session must be approached. This is what examining context is all about. To do otherwise is no different from watching a play beginning with Act 3. Are the dailies and hourlies "hindsight"? By the time the session begins, of course they are. But that's what preparation is, studying what has happened up to the point where the trading session begins, just as an actor prepares the backstory of his character before he walks onstage (or at least the better ones do). Without it, the trader has no context within which to make choices, which means that the odds of his making the wrong ones are pretty much 50/50.
Beginning with the hourly is a step in the right direction, though beginning with at least the daily is preferable. If you post a daily chart that goes back to at least the beginning of June, you'll see why. And noting that swing high and swing low on the hourly, whether in real time or not, is a plus.
However, you have not decided at the beginning of the session what you're going to do with all of this. So you miss the first trade at 0900. If you weren't ready at the time, those are the breaks. We can't trade 24/7. However, the trade, taken or not, matters. It sets the stage. A higher high is made. If one is focused on what he perceives to be a range, even though a range has not yet been established, he may view this higher high as a failure given that it falls back into the "range". If so, he will likely miss the significance of the subsequent higher low.
When price makes that higher low, you "feel" that it's a reversal. What you feel, however, has nothing to do with it. Rather than range lines, you should have a supply line running from the swing high downward (and please get rid of the colors; they will mislead and misdirect you). When that line is broken, then look for a retracement if and when price moves in the opposite direction (if it were a reversal in a range, you could enter the trade as soon as price bounces off the lower limit of the range (AMT), but there is no range here, so you have to trade the SLA.
Given the bar interval you've chosen, however, there is no retracement until 1000. If you want something earlier, you'll have to use a smaller interval. Do not enter based on "feel". As for feeling that price was headed toward the upper limit of the range, there is, again, no range and no upper limit. There is a higher high and a higher low. This may lead to yet another higher high or not. A demand line will tell you what to do.
As to the reversal at 1100, there should be no stop, trailing or otherwise. Trailing stops are indicative of fear. If you're afraid of what's being presented to you or if you are unsure of what it is you're looking at, then don't trade. Observe. A trailing stop is the trading equivalent of grasping at straws. The trade should be exited when the demand line is broken, not ten points lower (your non-existent range is again messing you up). After that line is broken then, again, you look for a retracement in the opposite direction. You have this correct, at 1125, but for the wrong reason: the reversal is long past. Whether you made a profit or not is irrelevant. The profit was a happy accident. You can't build a system of consistently-profitable trades on happy accidents. You state yourself that all of this "is contrary to the philosophy of the SLA" but you are nonetheless happy with the result. What you should be happy with is having traded well. The money is -- or should be -- the result of having done so. If you aren't trading well, then you will give all the money back, and probably then some. As for finding your feet, yes. And trading in order to get to know your weaknesses, yes. But not with real money. Getting to know your weaknesses is in large part what demo trading is for. If fear is a factor when you begin trading with real money, then you're not ready to trade with real money. One doesn't rid himself of it via repeated and continuing effort. Those who've been at this for five or ten years and still can't show a consistent profit will tell you so.
As for exiting your short because you figured that (were afraid that) the points you made earlier were at risk, the earlier trade has absolutely nothing to do with the subsequent trade (see A Final Note on p. 33; in fact, you should read it before the beginning of every session; see also Appendix F; re-read it every day if necessary). If you had been trading in the moment, you would not have exited until your demand line was broken.
I suspect that none of this is what you wanted to hear, but I'm not a pep squad. I've watched too many people fail because they didn't study, they didn't practice, they never learned their business, they never addressed -- much less defeated -- their fears. And so they'd plod on, year after year, before finally going broke or quitting. If you don't or can't or otherwise won't follow the rules of the SLA, then the SLA is not for you. Explore other options. Perhaps something black box would be more suitable. Otherwise, read, study, practice and don't throw away any more money with real-time, real-money trading.
Your journal is your own, by the way. It needn't be devoted to the SLA. You were smart not to confine yourself to any particular approach with your title.
