Al Brooks - Trading Price Action Trends

[austinp]

Someday in the future, if/when Al Brooks ever develops a complete understanding of price action in the markets, he can condense his book into 20 pages or less with all important info contained within.

There is no need to languish on for hundreds of pages or worse, more than one book like that to explain the workings of price action and trading. It's one helluva lot simpler than that... once you get it.

Maybe he will, maybe he won't someday

 

[Swan Noir]

This is precisely where many people misunderstand Al's work. Yes, he is verbose and yeah his first book was written in ancient Sanskrit (his current writing is better) but his point has value. Price maters and it matters a great deal.

He is not suggesting you trade most setups just because they form or trade at all without considering trade position etc. but he is suggesting that all of the bars in the aggregate make up the map -- or as Donna says "the footprints" -- you must try to follow so you can pick your spots. I'm not sure how any trader can really disagree with that even if their approach is a different one.

Quote from NoDoji:

I think a few people are confusing reading charts bar by bar with trading charts bar by bar, which will definitely lead to overtrading and entering poor trades.

Reading price charts bar by bar means reading the footprints of price in the context of the overall price action environment.

[/B]

 

[wrbtrader]

Quote from austinp:

Someday in the future, if/when Al Brooks ever develops a complete understanding of price action in the markets, he can condense his book into 20 pages or less with all important info contained within.

There is no need to languish on for hundreds of pages or worse, more than one book like that to explain the workings of price action and trading. It's one helluva lot simpler than that... once you get it.

Maybe he will, maybe he won't someday

I was under the impression from actual users of his methods that Al does in fact have a complete understanding of the price action of his trading instruments. In contrast, the problem seems to be that he has a problem in explaining the method itself when he eventually gets to the method itself.

In college, while studying immunology and bacteriology, I learned from some of the best scientists in the field. Most couldn't explain many important concepts to their students. That's why they had "teaching assistants (TAs)" to do the explanation for them...TAs that understood the "ramblings".

My point, just because someone doesn't have the ability to explain a concept...doesn't imply he/she doesn't have an understanding of the concept nor implies they trade poorly. In contrast, it implies they should have "teaching assistants (TAs)" that has the ability to bridge the gap between professor and student especially when those (the few) that do understand the material have seen an improvement in their own trading due to what they've learned from the book or from others that have used the book.

Just the same, just because someone has excellent writing skills and can explain trading concepts in a precise coherent manner...doesn't imply he/she has a good understanding of the markets nor implies he/she is a profitable trader.

That's why I will consistently suggest to those that have a sincere interest to learn anyone's approach to trading to use someone that has a good understanding of the method (similar to the university teaching assistant) if/when the professor has problems in explaining the method or seems to speak a different trading dialect.

Regardless, isn't it a known fact or myth that doctors or folks in science usually can't write or can't explain something to the average Joe Bob but are too stubborn to hire someone to explain it for them. :eek:

 

[GiantDog]

Quote from austinp:

Someday in the future, if/when Al Brooks ever develops a complete understanding of price action in the markets, he can condense his book into 20 pages or less with all important info contained within.

There is no need to languish on for hundreds of pages or worse, more than one book like that to explain the workings of price action and trading. It's one helluva lot simpler than that... once you get it.

Maybe he will, maybe he won't someday

Please let us all know when you finally get price action trading down okay?

And make a 20 page PDF and sell it for $49 instead of the $2495 indicator course you like to sell to noobs.

 

[Xspurt]

I have not read Al's books but I have noted ND's examples and seen the logic. There is absolutely no question that the little I have seen gives excellent context and works.

There are really good points being put forward as to why some find Al's method helpful while others think he is a fraud. Context is 90% of the signal's strength and without grasping the "footprints" as ND calls it, expect the same results university studies have achieved with naive studies on TA and indicators.

When a great setups fails it quickly tells me to recheck context. If it fails again I am probably on the wrong side of the momentum. There was nothing wrong with the signal - the trader has the problem but it can quickly be reversed with a bit of experience.

If I had one beef with what I have seen of Al's work it is that his big picture context is missing. Trading off a 5m/1m combo will at times leave you in the dark, but it is a great way to start and might be the limit for some traders. It seems to be hard to go beyond that without some mentoring as the next step is a like reading hieroglyphics but well worth deciphering!

 

[dv4632]

So, how do Al Brooks traders do across varying market conditions?

For example, I've been working on coming up with a trading plan for day trading index futures. I know what I'm trying to exploit, and coming up with a complete plan for it is very difficult, but I seem to be on the right track and have been positive about my progress. But recently I went back and replayed some charts from earlier in 2011 and late 2010 when volatility was very low. Guess what, my plan did not work as well on those days. So the way to trade in November 2011 is different from how to trade in April 2011.

So I'm VERY interested in ways to identify good trading conditions versus poor trading conditions Or in other cases it may not be a case of good vs bad conditions, it may just be that they are different and each require different rules. If someone were to do a webinar about this - I'd love to see it!

 

[dv4632]

Quote from Xspurt:

If I had one beef with what I have seen of Al's work it is that his big picture context is missing. Trading off a 5m/1m combo will at times leave you in the dark, but it is a great way to start and might be the limit for some traders. It seems to be hard to go beyond that without some mentoring as the next step is a like reading hieroglyphics but well worth deciphering!

I hadn't seen this when I posted my post above, but that's kind of what I was getting at with my post about varying market conditions. When you're low on the learning curve, it takes a long time to come up with a working trading plan that you can trust... so naturally you're going to be very slow to react to changes in market conditions or big picture context.

It has me a little worried, by the time I get my plan perfected it may not be any good any more!

 

[jo0477]

Quote from cornixforex:

If one took time to read Brook's first book (actually just preface) with enough attention, he would read that Brooks himself stated that of course the biggest money does not use those trendlines, intra-day levels etc.

But that is absolutely irrelevant and cannot be the base for conclusion if PA tricks "work" or not.

Because even if they are just a psychological trick, which allows retail traders over the course of practice to gauge the balance of supply/demand well enough to put odd's in their favor, who cares as long as it makes money?

Or job as retail traders is to simply recognize big money moves early enough so there would still be some momentum to exploit with minimal risk. Whatever helps to gauge that institutional "inertion" is useful. For some it may be PA, for some it may be CCI or crystal ball. Doesn't matter.

People tend to think WAY too much, while at the same time being caught in a cage of their rigid beliefs about what is "true" or "false", "possible" or "impossible" et cetera.

Very good post, I struggled through bar by bar and am very glad that I did. I had no expectations that it would deliver a system on a silver platter but that it would actually get into pa itself and the drivers behind movements (which imho was a success). After reading, i started to think more about WHY (context) instead of trying to follow patterns simply because they were patterns. That has helped me avoid the multiple types of "traps" he references throughout the book.
Maybe not for everyone since there is no arguing the poor structure (agree with previous poster regarding usage of terminology that is explained in later sections???)

 

[FreakofNature]

Quote from GiantDog:

Please let us all know when you finally get price action trading down okay?

And make a 20 page PDF and sell it for $49 instead of the $2495 indicator course you like to sell to noobs.

Oh dear lol

FoN

 

[cornix]

Quote from Xspurt:

Context is 90% of the signal's strength and without grasping the "footprints" as ND calls it, expect the same results university studies have achieved with naive studies on TA and indicators.

Yeah, thats what most "TA works or not" threads stumble upon. People refuse to admit this is not mechanical kind of human activity. It's is more like professional music or sports, activity which demands extreme focus, considering all the smallest details, nuances and of course, context.

If one is focused enough to really watch the price across several time-frames, context soon becomes clear enough to put odds in your favour.

But of course, most never get there. They want just to see green arrow to "buy" and red arrow to "sell" and preferably that distinguishing arrow colors would be the hardest part of analysis.