Al Brooks - Al Crooks, Charlatan

[wrbtrader]

Just because you are a failure at understanding price action doesn't mean that Al Brooks is a fraud. I and others that I know have become better and better every day by learning principles from Al Brooks' books and video course and putting into practice what they have learned. In fact, I have become more profitable than I have been before, though I am still learning and using a small account.

You are one of those people who think that setups are the key to trading, when in fact successful trading depends on a lot more than that. You are probably a classic example of a failure trader who keeps buying one tick above an H2 after an exhaustive bull spike thinking that the bull trend is still strong, only to see a sharp reversal take out your stop. Then you cry, not realizing that you are not paying attention to market context and are relying on setups in the wrong place at the wrong time. People like you make me laugh.

Its possible his (Q3D) issue is not with price action. Instead, he may have an issue with how Al Brooks himself and and with Al Brooks perspective of price action.

I remember awhile back here at ET there were other threads like this that eventually got to the above conclusion...there's a problem with his writing and the lack of proof reading prior to publication. Then in the next editions, there was proof reading but the person that did it didn't know anything about the markets. Therefore, several of the errors remained. Yet, only one of those threads eventually became useful. It was a thread where members showed up to make "corrections" to many of Al's statements (I think about 5 - 7 corrections) so that the statements made sense because there's an apparent misinformation in his books and some of his webinars.

I doubt that he does such intentional...I think its a doctor thing. Some of his info is just a little mixed up and traders not use to price action concepts...they will not catch the errors and it will be very confusing to them. In contrast, those use to the concepts, most likely seen the key concepts before prior to Al Brooks or being taught clearer by someone else. Thus, while reading his stuff, they were able to make the appropriate corrections so that it all made sense.

Regardless, it does seem odd that Q3D is not being specific about particular price action concepts he was using that he learned from Al Brooks. Thus, its possible he may have read some of the info that others identified as incorrect and thereby Q3D is completely unaware of the corrections that have been made here at ET in that one particular thread that became productive.

For example, scalping by the 5min chart. Geeesh....scalpers don't use 5min charts. Therefore, to someone that's a newbie and reading Al's comments...they will think that scalpers use 5min charts. Thus, they will also attempt to scalp via the 5min chart while not knowing its not going to work like that until its too late. To properly scalp...you need special commission rates, time frames less than 1min, most likely not using charts and instead using DOM, looking for ticks and not points for each trade while taking +100 trades per day with some automation involved to ensure those ticks are locked in when reached.

Only scalpers I know all have seats on the exchange and they only use DOM. A newbie trader wouldn't know that and will then attempt to scalp via the 5min chart...big mistake.

 

[Q3D]

I could list numerous problems with Brooks' teachings. He claims swing trades(ES trades where one looks for 4 points with approximately a stop of 1.75pts or slightly less) are good because you're probably going to be right 40% of the time and lose 60% but the math in the risk:reward ratio makes sense. I call that glib and dangerous advice, unless you're taking those trades on a daily basis and can identify them to your customers and the public on a daily basis you have no business telling the public or your customers that such trades are sound strategies.

 

[wrbtrader]

I could list numerous problems with Brooks' teachings. He claims swing trades(ES trades where one looks for 4 points with approximately a stop of 1.75pts or slightly less) are good because you're probably going to be right 40% of the time and lose 60% but the math in the risk:reward ratio makes sense. I call that glib and dangerous advice, unless you're taking those trades on a daily basis and can identify them to your customers and the public on a daily basis you have no business telling the public or your customers that such trades are sound strategies.

What did Al teach about trade management "after entry" and risk management to determine if you should or should not be in the trade after a trade signal appears ???

This is a trick question.

 

[mangolassi]

Brooks sells setups, not higher-time-frame contextual awareness.

Not only are you a liar, you also have no clue what I'm talking about. "Higher time frame contextual awareness"? When did I mention that? I'm talking about the same time frame in which you are going to be placing trades, such as the 5 minute chart. Read my previous post again. I gave you an example of context, and a setup that will fail in that context. Al Brooks' material is full of context-based rules and setups depending on those contexts.

Just from reading your post above, I can tell that your problem is a complete and devastating inability to read market context while you are trading. You think setups, no matter when and where they occur, are the answer to trading, and you also think that Al Brooks advocates blindly trading these setups. You are wrong.

 

[mangolassi]

For example, scalping by the 5min chart. Geeesh....scalpers don't use 5min charts. Therefore, to someone that's a newbie and reading Al's comments...they will think that scalpers use 5min charts. Thus, they will also attempt to scalp via the 5min chart while not knowing its not going to work like that until its too late. To properly scalp...you need special commission rates, time frames less than 1min, most likely not using charts and instead using DOM, looking for ticks and not points for each trade while taking +100 trades per day with some automation involved to ensure those ticks are locked in when reached.

Only scalpers I know all have seats on the exchange and they only use DOM. A newbie trader wouldn't know that and will then attempt to scalp via the 5min chart...big mistake.

Al Brooks does not define scalping in the same way you are. Al Brooks defines scalping as a high probability trade that isn't held through a pullback. This definition is consistent with his extensive use of the trader's equation as an underlying principle of his trading method (in other words, a high probability trade is unlikely to produce a large move in the direction of the trade, and is therefore going to have a small reward to risk ratio of around 1 at most).

Following this definition, you can even "scalp" on a daily or monthly chart. Brooks defines scalping more on the basis of probability, not time frame.

 

[i960]

Scalping has two forms in common use. The traditional tick for tick DOM scalping and the intraday small move grabs lasting for a few minutes to even an hour or so depending on volume.

 

[londonkid]

I don't have a clue if Al Brooks is a profitable trader nor do I care. What I can tell you is that it is extremely unlikely that any highly profitable trader would start selling their wares for $99pm in a live room. There is no reason to and it would be a huge distraction from their trading.

The very idea that you can learn from someone who is pitching to the masses is flawed. Yes I have paid money to 'gurus' in the past and yes I now realise they were charlatans likely scratching a living at the trading education business. This crap has been going on for a long time, Wyckoff wrote about tipsters and charlatans over 100 years ago.

I just don't think you can learn to trade from one of these gurus who markets to the masses. It defies logic. Trading is a competition, how could you possible teach something to the uniformed masses that would work, you just cant. If you really want to learn you need to find people who are profitable. These people usually have some sort of institutional exposure, have been in the industry a long time or have exposure to genuine prop firms (not counterfeit prop firms). Obviously these people have no motivation to teach you, they may help you though if you approach them nicely and don't act like a tool.

 

[NoDoji]

Who knows. Regardless, only the naive would send such ideas $$ to "learn".

His book is a minor investment and being familiar with the publishing/author industry, I doubt he gets more than a few dollars from the sale of it. A few years ago he had a trading room you could subscribe to for $99 a month, but there was a free trial so you didn't have to risk any money to find out if there might be benefit from the room.

If someone's going to be called a crook and a charlatan s/he should at least be deceptively attempting to induce people to part with significant sums of money. I mean, come on, Madoff's a crook and a charlatan, but Al Brooks...seriously???

 

[wrbtrader]

Al Brooks does not define scalping in the same way you are. Al Brooks defines scalping as a high probability trade that isn't held through a pullback. This definition is consistent with his extensive use of the trader's equation as an underlying principle of his trading method (in other words, a high probability trade is unlikely to produce a large move in the direction of the trade, and is therefore going to have a small reward to risk ratio of around 1 at most).

Following this definition, you can even "scalp" on a daily or monthly chart. Brooks defines scalping more on the basis of probability, not time frame.

Al's definition of scalping is not correct.

The definition of scalping was long defined prior to Al becoming a trader. Simply, just because Al has "changed" the definition (this fact is true)...doesn't imply its the correct definition.

Just the same, Al calls himself a price action trader. That too is incorrect because Al uses indicators. Once again, the definition of "price action trading" was long defined before Al became a trader. Thus, just because he calls himself a price action trader doesn't imply its correct.

It only implies he has changed the definition for his own purposes.

Hey, look at it this way. I use to call Japanese Candlesticks as "Sushi Mama". I used that term for many years. It doesn't imply its correct because Japanese Candlesticks was long defined before I became a trader...actually back in the 1600's.

Regardless, its rumored these incorrect definitions will be corrected...stay tune for that channel.

P.S. I specifically asked him once if he used indicators. His reply was YES.

 

[NoDoji]

Brooks' books are some of the most expensive books to buy new on the subject of day trading, the entire content could easily fit into one book without the excessive amount of hard-to-follow charts and chart commentary, although that would cost less.

The entire content does fit in one book and it cost me less than $50 for that book. I met a guy on ET, the closest thing I ever had to a mentor, who tried to talk sense into me for the better part of a year. He came across Brooks book and suggested I read it because he thought it might get certain concepts across to me in a way I could understand because he certainly wasn't having any success with me.

It took me a long time to wallow though it, but it did indeed get certain concepts across to me which, when combined with my screen time and study, led me to an understanding of price behavior unlike anything I've ever seen in a book or on this forum. A lot of my current understanding of price action isn't in Brooks' materials, but his concepts led me down the path to what I know today. I can assure you that price behavior is absolutely not random during regular trading hours except during brief periods immediately surrounding major news releases. Short term price behavior (such as directional price swings on a 5-min price chart) is amazingly predictable if you want to limit the loss per trade to less than $150 and attain a similar or better minimum profit per trade (assuming a single futures contract or small stock share position).