how to understand Al Brooks

[zenemini]

As far as the books all the definitions are in there for every trade signal and setup just not necessarily in the immediate spot where he is discussing them. That is he is not going to define L1 or H2 everytime he mentions them.

He should have defined them the first time he used them. He did not. I do know when I first read that Bar by Bar book, I looked high and low for the definitions of his terms and could not find them. On that ground, the book is worthless to someone like me. Why don't you give us the page number in Bar by Bar that he defines and makes clear his use of those terms.

Folks should study the entire set of books and not just read a paragraph or two that they cannot comprehend because they don’t yet know the lingo he uses and have not taken the time to understand that lingo.

This smacks of "blaming the victim" for not understanding his secret lingo. This is clearly a time where one should blame the messenger. Based on Bar by Bar, I cannot recommend anyone inflict his entire four books on him- or herself.

 

[Xela]

Well at least you are open-minded. Yes the video are very good.

Undoubtedly ... I feel like something of an "old-timer" (just on this subject, you understand!) in that they didn't exist when I started.

I only wish they had - it would doubtless have made the process far easier for me.

(I did buy the video course, some years later, to check them out, mostly for the purpose of seeing whether or not I should be recommending them to people who ask, and decided that I clearly should. I think I paid only $250, at the time, so the price has gone up, since then, but is still outstandingly good value at $350 - for about 35 hours of high-quality tuition spread over about 55 videos, as I remember).

Folks should study the entire set of books and not just read a paragraph or two that they cannot comprehend because they don’t yet know the lingo he uses and have not taken the time to understand that lingo.

The books are even more rich and deep in explanations than the videos.

I agree completely. I now find myself recommending the videos as an introduction to the books, in spite of having seen them the other way round, myself.

 

[volpri]

He should have defined them the first time he used them. He did not. I do know when I first read that Bar by Bar book, I looked high and low for the definitions of his terms and could not find them. On that ground, the book is worthless to someone like me. Why don't you give us the page number in Bar by Bar that he defines and makes clear his use of those terms.




This smacks of "blaming the victim" for not understanding his secret lingo. This is clearly a time where one should blame the messenger. Based on Bar by Bar, I cannot recommend anyone inflict his entire four books on him- or herself.

ROFLMAO! He can’t please everyone. He develops the TAXONOMY as he wishes. His writing style is as he talks and is how he wishes to do it. They are his books and his works. The definitions are there. Dig them out yourself!

If you can’t recommend the books fine....leave em be...let the friends remain losers LOL

If you find the books useless why put them back in the basement? Give them away ..or sell them...

You think brooks is hard..well...read The Taylor Trading Technique.

ROFLMAO

 

[volpri]

Haha. Watched 1 minute of the Al Brooks video and he said "um" so many times I couldnt take any more.

ROFLMO then don’t watch them anymore.

 

[padutrader]

1) I agree. For $99/month I want to see the real account/real time/Dom of the the Room moderator and I want real time actionable calls with entry and stop loss, profit target and instruction on reducing risk by trailing stop. Now, if the purpose of the chat room is strictly "chat" - real time commentary for educational purposes, then I would think $29.99/month should be a fair and sufficient fee. It does seem to me that Brooks is digging far too deep into his subscriber's pockets if those reviews are an accurate representation of his chat room.

2) I dug his "Bar by Bar" book back out of a box in my basement. That alone tells me how bad my initial reaction to his text was: Like @wrbtrader I collect books. I have a "Hall of Fame" shelf I keep in my office. Those that are not HoF material go in my family library. Those I wouldn't want my kids to look at go in boxes in the basement. Anyhow, his writing is not as terrible as I remember it. He actually got off to a pretty good start. Where he begins to lose me is on page 19 with his first mention of "a High or Low2" but gives no definition. I think I put the book down at page 22 when I read this gem:

Bar 3 was a swing low, a reversal up from a Low 2 short, and the second leg down of a second leg down, making it a High 4 long set up.

I get "swing low" and "reversal up" and "second leg down", but at no point did he say what constitutes a "Low 2 short" or a "High 4 long." If you are not going to define your terms, and you are going to assume everyone speaks the language you speak to yourself in your own head, I have no more time to give to your thoughts, good Doctor brooks. Back in the box in the basement.

3) That brings us to his "Trading Course." The OP started this thread telling us that he succeeded with Brook's method, but it was not the books but the videos that proved to be the key to unlocking an understanding of Brooks. As I said in another post in another thread, I am nothing if not fair. So, I dropped the $349 to buy Brooks's video course. What can I say, I'm a curious cat. And as I had said earlier in the thread, I had no basis to judge Brooks's method. Now I do.

I will say that my first impression, having viewed perhaps 8 or 9 videos so far, is that someone who was new to trading, with no preconceived ideas as to what trading was or is or could be, and who furthermore understood that any understanding of price action is itself worthless in the absence of a trading plan to trade that price action consistently and profitably, would likely find value in the video course. Yes, Brook's delivery is dry. But he is honest about expectations, the learning curve, and I finally understand what he means when he says "H1 ... L4 .... etc." lol

I will also say this: I trade two main set-ups - one is a retracement in a trend, the other is a reversal. I do rather well, if I do say so myself, with those two set-ups, with a few additional refinements and flourishes, of course, as a result of experience and testing. He covers both of those. So right there, a perceptive student who is patient enough to wait for these set-ups could put together a trading plan, and, presumably, do quite well.

Having not watched the entire course (and truthfully, my questions have been answered by what I have seen thus far, and therefore, I do not know how much more, if any, I will watch) I do not know if at any point Brooks uses what he has taught to provide some sort of trading plan for his students. If he does, then I would probably say that the course is a real bargain at $349. If not, then it still is likely worth the money. I will probably view some of the later videos to see if Brooks does anything to "put it all together." If so, I'll report back here.

The big caution would be this: Brooks focuses on the bars, but he is really focused on price action and institutional behavior. This is likely lost to many of his students. He has one video in particular where he discusses how a bar may be a reversal bar, though it does not look like a reversal bar, e.g. a bar may have what he calls a "bear" close and yet be a "buy reversal bar" (though not a "bull reversal bar" <confused yet lol>. He notes that on some "time frame," there is a "bull reversal bar" present at that point. He then shows that to be the case by simply changing the bar interval. But he also cautions students not to go looking for that ideal bar interval, but to learn to recognize the reversal in real time on one's chosen bar chart, which for Brooks appears to be the 5 minute, and trade it.

In short (for such a long post), Brooks likely over charges for his chat room, his book isn't worth the paper it is printed on, but his video course, for the price of just 7 ES points (how many multiples of that did I lose while learning to trade!) probably could be a worthwhile investment for a would-be trader. It is two parts: Price Action Fundamentals, which is 121 videos and is 57 hours and 32 minutes long, and How to Trade Price Action, which is 72 videos over 38 hours and 5 minutes. That is quite a bit of material for the price, and again, from what I have seen thus far, the material is of good quality. The youtube video posted above is not indicative of the quality of the videos I received with his trading course.

yep that is what I said see the videos not the book

and after i saw his videos i just trade reversals.....so you get in much earlier then the pull backs

 

[wrbtrader]

Haha. Watched 1 minute of the Al Brooks video and he said "um" so many times I couldnt take any more.

Do you have a link to the free video you were watching ???

The only two negatives I've seen in Al's videos...one is not trading related and the other is trading related.

Trading Related

Al's biggest theme is "price action trading". Strangely, he uses an indicator...a price action moving average. That's an indicator. That confuses me because the education is label as "price action trading" when it should be label as "one indicator trading".

I think (guessing) he labels it as price action trading because he puts more focus on the bar to bar analysis in comparison to his use of that one indicator...a price moving average. Yet, I'm old school...if you're using an indicator...you can't call yourself a "price action trader". In contrast, I do understand some traders stating they are not making their trade decisons "alone" by that one indicator being used.

A few years later I came across one of Al's videos by accident or via an unusual situation. although I had been aware in prior years that they were available on Youtube...the free stuff.

I've seen traders in person use Al method's successfully (profitable) and I've seen other traders in person traders not successful (not profitable) although these were very small durations of trading...a few days. Simply, I've seen both camps with my own two eyes in real money trading and the mixed results tells me there's more to it...leads me into the next topic.

No merit to debating if it works or not works.

Not Trading Related

Its more to do with his "voice" and the flow from complicated terms to the next via that voice. I've often hear complaints by others about how he writes or how he talks. Al's voice reminds me of a medical ethics professor I had in college...it was like there's something in his throat that resulted in this "scratchy" type of voice...

Very irritating to listen to and it reminded me of that difficult class I had taken in college. The voice was so irritating that I moved my seating from the front of the class (near the professor) to all the way in the back of the class in a failed effort to lesson the irritation. Eventually I settle on bringing a recorder to class and would just sit in the back with head phones on and listening to jazz music. A memory that would resurface again in my rehab (explained later below).

The other thing I notice in the videos was that they are lessons for those that have already read or familiarize with prior types of techinical terms he's used in "books". Yet, someone came up with a better analogy. Its like learning another language...if you've ever taken a language class by a teacher with a voice that "irritates" your ears...the class...will be a tough pill to swallow or endure...sitting there and listening to the teacher. You're then in the position that you must find a way to get through the class with a passing grade to earn the course credit or to escape without having to retake the class again.

Saltynuts, that's why the "um" bothers you...its nothing trading related considering its the only issue you mentioned.

Serious example now. I was released from the hospital late 2016 (in one country) and transfered to a rehab facility (in another country)...very complicated situation & complicated transportation for the hospital/rehab involved. They would not allow me to take a regular passenger plane because they said they are still "liable" and it was too dangerous for me.

Two nurses had to travel with me for the transportation.

I had a "team of doctors"...literally upon my arrival at the rehab...a few from the rehab, the rest from a famous nearby hospital along with my own private doctor of 16 years. One particular doctor or a PhD student (she hated when I called her that in reference to the PhD because I implied she was new and just starting to get real on the job experience) was a psycho-therapist.

As a trader...my personal doctor already knew how much more my mind was especially in the cognitive decision making process. Something him & I had many conversations about at family dinners & outdoor get togethers prior to my hospitalization/rehab.

At first, this was scary because I thought the issues was physical related from the pneumonia/coma and nothing to do with my brain until I was quickly schooled by recent scan results...the multiple strokes. I was no longer more concerned about walking again...literally.

Anyways, about 5 hours per week I was with this psycho therapist...mainly being tested and a few times being hooked up to machines while being tested. I remember a few times she had convesation with a colleague...it was about the cognitive & decision making. She had to redesign many aspects of her testing for my particular situation which till this day...I don't fully understand what the problem was. The psycho therapist had arrange for me to view some videos with audio, videos without audio, audio alone and text (books) that correlated with the videos & audio.

At first it was one video per session. Later it grew to 2 - 3 videos per session.

There was one particular video among the 24 or so videos. It happen to be an Al Brooks video that I was sure it must have been downloaded from Youtube...apparently it was not from Youtube. I thought my psycho-therapist was joking or someone would jump out from behind a door and say "surprise".

I watched other videos in English, French and Lakota on various topics.

Later, I quickly notice a pattern with these testing procedures. She would have normal conversations with me for about 15 mins - 30 mins involving many things that seemed ridiculous to me at the time but I realized later about their importance. Then she would suddenly end our normal conversation and have me answer questions about the details in the videos, audios or text book (short stories) I had just recently seen/listen/read prior to our conversation...

Testing my memory and cognitive decision making when given related or none related tests. This was a serious brain workout...more difficult to using a wheelchair, then a walker, then walking up & down stairs and finally to running laps on a local track...now today running & biking faster than my times when I was in college.

The one thing I remember about that Al Brooks video was the irritation by the voice. The latter was important to my psycho-therapist...the irritation. She was really interested in every aspect about it and I would often see her taking notes whenever I explained such to her.

thing that really had "nothing" to do with trading although the video was about a teacher. Yet, there were other videos, text short stories and audio short stories but that video hit a nerve...the audio...the voice.

Fast forward in my rehab...I have learned that our biases, fears, hate, happiness, comfort or whatever you want to call it is linked to "sound" and it impacts what we're able to remember or comprehend. Simply, Al's voice irritates me greatly and it will impact everything (e.g. if I would read his books) including my ability to comphrehend the info.

Recently, a ex-army buddy stated he saw a range of emotions on my face when I talked different languages on the cell phone while doing extreme hiking in the Northwest U.S...talking from a mountain to my children via cell phone when in reality it was the "sound" (audio) of the other person voice I was listening too. My oldest speaks all three languages fluent and has a bad habit of doing it in the same conversation while my youngest struggles with English and tries very hard to avoid it.

Maybe this is all too deep for me to explain especially via the fact that I speak different languages but I'm learning that what we read (the text) at this forum would greatly be different (how we interpret & comprehend) than what we hear (audio) if the same message texts were available as audio...beyond words and charts.

Now fast forward again...about 1 1/2 years later...a few extreme camping & hiking trips, running & biking faster than my times prior to the illness as if the near death experience was just a hiccup on the radar...

I'm back to my old self...phsically & mentally. Yet, I view trading a lot different than I did before. Especially the issue involving text, audio and videos (visual). Things I never consider as important or underestimated their importance while growing up and living (raised) in two different countries, in college, military, day to day conversations along with the multitude of communicating in different languages online prior to my hospitalization/rehab experience.

I have a better understanding about why one of my children speaks all three of my languages fluently while the other speak two fluently and seems to have difficulty with the English language.

English is irritating to him regardless to the speaker and I need to make more of an effort to make English comfortable & welcoming for him as it is for him in Lakota and French.

Ways to get it to sink in between the ears and applicable.

wrbtrader

 

[padutrader]

this is just my 4 th day in ET and i am greatly impressed by the analytical prowess of many of those i have come across.
not surprisingly since traders must possess analytical ability to process information and then to focus completely on the result, filtering all the noise tempting you to bail out of the correct trade.

 

[padutrader]

Do you have a link to the free video you were watching ???

The only two negatives I've seen in Al's videos...one is not trading related and the other is trading related.

Trading Related

Al's biggest theme is "price action trading". Strangely, he uses an indicator...a price action moving average. That's an indicator. That confuses me because the education is label as "price action trading" when it should be label as "one indicator trading".

I think (guessing) he labels it as price action trading because he puts more focus on the bar to bar analysis in comparison to his use of that one indicator...a price moving average. Yet, I'm old school...if you're using an indicator...you can't call yourself a "price action trader". In contrast, I do understand some traders stating they are not making their trade decisons "alone" by that one indicator being used.

A few years later I came across one of Al's videos by accident or via an unusual situation. although I had been aware in prior years that they were available on Youtube...the free stuff.

I've seen traders in person use Al method's successfully (profitable) and I've seen other traders in person traders not successful (not profitable) although these were very small durations of trading...a few days. Simply, I've seen both camps with my own two eyes in real money trading and the mixed results tells me there's more to it...leads me into the next topic.

No merit to debating if it works or not works.

Not Trading Related

Its more to do with his "voice" and I've often hear complaints by others about how he writes or how he talks. Al's voice reminds me of a medical ethics professor I had in college...it was like there's something in his throat that resulted in this "scratchy" type of voice...

Very irritating to listen to and it reminded me of that difficult class I had taken in college. The voice was so irritating that I moved my seating from the front of the class (near the professor) to all the way in the back of the class in a failed effort to lesson the irritation. Eventually I settle on bringing a recorder to class and would just sit in the back with head phones on and listening to jazz music. A memory that would resurface again in my rehab (explained later below).

The other thing I notice in the videos was that they are lessons for those that have already read or familiarize with prior types of techinical terms he's used in "books". Yet, someone came up with a better analogy. Its like learning another language...if you've ever taken a language class by a teacher with a voice that "irritates" your ears...the class...will be a tough pill to swallow or endure...sitting there and listening to the teacher. You're then in the position that you must find a way to get through the class with a passing grade to earn the course credit or to escape without having to retake the class again.

Saltynuts, that's why the "um" bothers you...its nothing trading related considering its the only issue you mentioned.

Serious example now. I was released from the hospital late 2016 (in one country) and transfered to a rehab facility (in another country)...very complicated situation & complicated transportation for the hospital/rehab involved. They would not allow me to take a regular passenger plane because they said they are still "liable" and it was too dangerous for me.

Two nurses had to travel with me for the transportation.

I had a "team of doctors"...literally upon my arrival at the rehab...a few from the rehab, the rest from a famous nearby hospital along with my own private doctor of 16 years. One particular doctor or a PhD student (she hated when I called her that in reference to the PhD because I implied she was new and just starting to get real on the job experience) was a psycho-therapist.

As a trader...my personal doctor already knew how much more my mind was especially in the cognitive decision making process. Something him & I had many conversations about at family dinners & outdoor get togethers prior to my hospitalization/rehab.

At first, this was scary because I thought the issues was physical related from the pneumonia/coma and nothing to do with my brain until I was quickly schooled by recent scan results...the multiple strokes. I was no longer more concerned about walking again...literally.

Anyways, about 5 hours per week I was with this psycho therapist...mainly being tested and a few times being hooked up to machines while being tested. I remember a few times she had convesation with a colleague...it was about the cognitive & decision making. She had to redesign many aspects of her testing for my particular situation which till this day...I don't fully understand what the problem was. The psycho therapist had arrange for me to view some videos with audio, videos without audio, audio alone and text (books) that correlated with the videos & audio.

At first it was one video per session. Later it grew to 2 - 3 videos per session.

There was one particular video among the 24 or so videos. It happen to be an Al Brooks video that I was sure it must have been downloaded from Youtube...apparently it was not from Youtube. I thought my psycho-therapist was joking or someone would jump out from behind a door and say "surprise".

I watched other videos in English, French and Lakota on various topics.

Later, I quickly notice a pattern with these testing procedures. She would have normal conversations with me for about 15 mins - 30 mins involving many things that seemed ridiculous to me at the time but I realized later about their importance. Then she would suddenly end our normal conversation and have me answer these questions that dealt with the videos, audios or text book short stories I had just recently seen/listen/read prior to our conversation...

The one thing I remember about that Al Brooks video was the irritation by the voice. The latter was important to my psycho-therapist...the irritation. She was really interested in every aspect about it and I would often see her taking notes whenever I explained such to her.

thing that really had "nothing" to do with trading although the video was about a teacher. Yet, there were other videos, text short stories and audio short stories but that video hit a nerve...the audio...the voice.

Fast forward in my rehab...I have learned that our biases, fears, hate, happiness, comfort or whatever you want to call it is linked to "sound" and it impacts what we're able to remember or comprehend. Simply, Al's voice irritates me greatly and it will impact everything (e.g. if I would read his books) including my ability to comphrehend the info.

Recently, a ex-army buddy stated he saw a range of emotions on my face when I talked different languages on the cell phone while doing extreme hiking in the Northwest U.S...talking from a mountain to my children via cell phone when in reality it was the "sound" (audio) of the other person voice I was listening too. My oldest speaks all three languages fluent and has a bad habit of doing it in the same conversation while my youngest struggles with English and tries very hard to avoid it.

Maybe this is all too deep for me to explain especially via the fact that I speak different languages but I'm learning that what we read (the text) at this forum would greatly be different (how we interpret & comprehend) than what we hear (audio) if the same message texts were available as audio.

Now fast forward again...about 1 1/2 years later...a few extreme camping & hiking trips...I view trading a lot different than I did before. Especially the issue involving text, audio and videos (visual). Things I never consider as important while growing up, in college, military, day to day conversations online until my hospitalization/rehab experience.

I have a better understanding about why one of my children speaks all three of my languages fluently while the other speak two fluently and seems to have difficulty with the English language...its irritating to him and I need to make more of an effort to make it comfortable & welcoming for him.

wrbtrader

do you want the link to that video?

 

[wrbtrader]

do you want the link to that video?

Yes...I would like to see if its just as irritating to me now as the one I saw before or if I can sit through it this time.

Thanks

wrbtrader

 

[zenemini]

The definitions are there. Dig them out yourself!

That should not be the readers job. You said the definitions are there. I did attempt to dig them out. Since you said they were there, I asked you to point them out to us. As an apparent Brooks evangelist, you should have no problem doing so. The fact that you refuse to do that for us, and instead you act like an immature little douche, indicates that I am correct, and Brooks just pulls terms out of his ass in his books.

You seem to be conceding that Brooks never defines his terms in Bar by Bar. If he does, then, if not you, then perhaps some other Brooks acolyte will step forward with a page number to help us out. Where in Bar by Bar does Brooks first define H1 H2 L1 L2 etc?

You think brooks is hard..well...read The Taylor Trading Technique.

Taylor is actually on my Hall of Fame shelf. His writing sucks, but he defines his terms and is perfectly clear otherwise. On the basis of Taylor, which I have been using for 12 years on a daily basis, I would expect the rally from Friday's lows to continue into Monday. It is not infallible. But as any trader knows, the failures contain valuable information as well.