Quote from ammo:
the question i have doj,is how much of your trading is al brooks and how much have you tweaked it to be nodoji's
Ammo, only one of the setups I trade is not Brooks; it's a pure counter-trend play that works quite well under certain conditions on the instrument I trade and I always use a tight stop and tight risk management with it.
The other five setups I trade are pure Brooks.
That said, I've come to believe that no successful trader can hand someone else their methods and expect similar results. There's too much psychology involved, too many conflicting belief systems among people, and a helluva lot of ego.
In an effort to pay forward the immense help that experienced traders here attempted to provide to me as a beginner, I spent much time over the past year and a half working with a variety of traders who were struggling to become consistently profitable. I offered many of them a complete description of my own trading strategies and trade management processes, and even tried to help them overcome the emotional pitfalls that destroy the best of plans.
I ended up baffled by the fact that so many people with a solid understanding of these consistently profitable methods were having such difficulty simply trading them. By the time I had done the months of work necessary to make a set of price action strategies my own and come to trust them, I had totally forgotten that when I was struggling to find my way and experienced traders gave me everything I needed to be successful (one of them even called every trade in advance with stops and targets for the better part of a year), I never followed along either!
I didnât trust the methods because they werenât mine. I was still looking for certainty in an environment of constant uncertainty; therefore, to me, any system that could potentially produce three losses in a row (gasp!) was extremely suspect.
When I later encountered the same thing from others as I handed them profitable strategies on a silver platter, it was frustrating. I had a plan that worked, so why canât they just take it and trade it? Why so many questions, why so much drama? I had moved on from my past, filled with excitement about having found the Holy Grail, and didnât recognize my previous self in these struggling traders.
During the latter part of the year, it became clear to me that itâs critical for a trader to do ample study and research, develop a concise trading plan that's their own even if it uses the tactics of others, test the plan thoroughly and master trading it with faith and discipline, preferably in a simulated environment.
These are the most important steps an aspiring trader can take, and itâs difficult to fail once they're completed.
My own trading plan is based on a few standard price action strategies covered comprehensively by Brooks. However, there are many other solid time-tested trading strategies you can borrow and adapt, or you can come up with your own through careful study if you want to re-invent the wheel.
Before finalizing my written trading plan, I spent a couple hours at the end of each day logging a complete analysis of the dayâs price action including descriptions of each of my chosen setups and the result of each one under various styles of trade management (risk management and profit-taking). I had around 100 days of spreadsheets with this sort of detailed data before I began to truly trust my plan-in-progress, and I had been logging my notes in bits and pieces. Finally, I put the plan in into a full written format which included screen shots from the hard right edge where it looks a lot more uncertain than it does on a static chart at the end of the day.
My educational recommendations for those who are just beginning to explore short term trading opportunities or who have tried various strategies that failed:
An excellent primer on reading price action:
http://www.daytradingcoach.com/daytrading-candlestick-course.htm
And an excellent primer on common chart patterns:
http://www.daytradingcoach.com/daytrading-technicalanalysis-course.htm
My favorite books Iâve found to be superb sources of ideas for studying and developing trading strategies:
Al Brooksâ âReading Price Charts Bar By Barâ
Alan Farleyâs âThe Master Swing Traderâ
Jack Schwagerâs âGetting Started in Technical Analysisâ
The finest trading plan is worthless without the discipline to follow it. The bible of trading psychology for those who already have a proven trading plan but are struggling to follow it:
Mark Douglasâ âTrading in the Zoneâ
Confidence is important in trading, but confidence does not mean having a big ego. In my opinion, trading is best done by checking your ego at the door.
The majority of the population are constantly living in the past and the future, are highly ego-driven and often engaged in proving themselves right and proving others wrong. This has a negative influence on most aspects of our lives. Itâs especially dangerous in the already difficult and risky world of trading for a living.
Here are my favorite books for ego reduction and emotional centeredness:
Don Miguel Ruizâ âThe Four Agreements: A Practical Guide To Personal Freedomâ
Eckhardt Tolleâs âThe Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightementâ
Eckhardt Tolleâs âPracticing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises From The Power of Nowâ
Ammo, thanks for all the help you gave me!
That old offer of mine to totally confuse you with Brooks price action as applied to CL still stands
