I have bought Al Brooks' Trading Course
- Thread starter Visaria
- Start date
To be fair, I actually asked Al Brooks about his earnings as a trader and his response to me was that he isn't allowed by the NFA to disclose that information. Does anyone know anything about this rule?
Al Brooks is a financial publisher. To the best of my knowledge, the NFA or anyone else has no authority to prevent a publisher from publishing performance information. Many actually do this, in fact, 17k plus publishers on collective 2 publish performance info.
Not a good answer relying on most folks ignorance but with that said--
I am open to be corrected if wrong.
Thanks,
Surf
LOL... I hear this as well and it just might be true because of some regulatory thing. I think that since these guys aren't certified as money managers or something like this, then they can't talk money. But in some twisted way, a rule designed to protect people actually hurts them because its the perfect excuse!
I'm not in any way putting him down or trying to protect him, just saying that this would be an important metric that isn't provided. He should be able to say something like what his average number of points that he can gain a day is, this wouldn't be talking money if he doesn't mention how many contracts he trades, but I don't think I've ever heard this.
I frankly don't so much care about the money, I just want to see a chart. If someone is teaching you how to trade, complete with telling you where to get in and where stops should be, they should be able to produce a few weeks worth of charts to show their trades. If they in fact trade the way they say they do, then someone who studies their material should be able to spot the trades and understand why they are taken where they are. If they aren't taken there, it should lead to a good discussion. But if someone teaching can't even show themselves trading via their own method.... well that's just stupid.
I'm looking for specific protocols that may enhance my own trading. I was perusing Brook's site, came across some free videos, watched one of them and some offhand comment that Brooks made was intriguing. I backtested the 'comment' and found it promising. Hence my interest in his course...there may be other hidden gems that could be of value. $250 is a small price to pay if i uncover something that adds 1% a year to my performance.
You should read George Soros's The Alchemy of Finance, specifically his diary of where he explains what trades he took and why. If you can figure out what the hell he's on about, you are a better man than me!
Funny thing is that if you did read that (actually not just you, anyone) and you didn't have a clue as to who George was (i.e. probably the best trader of all time), you would no doubt call him a loser and claim he is a charlatan and fuck knows what else!
I know who Soros is... but I don't think these guys say things in order to be helpful. They don't give advice so that you and I can make money. If they discuss positions, they are long in them and perhaps are looking to get out when the public starts buying on their "tip". If they are in a losing position, they have plenty of capital to sit tight without being the weak hand. So in many ways, what they say isn't really all that pertinent to what will make me successful day trading.
Reporting is always a grey area, but where there's a will there's a way. Recall that Joel Greenblatt published Gotham's year-by-year record right in an appendix to 'Stock Market Genius' (pg 271 in paperback).
This leads me to another point: having read The Alchemy Of Finance (first read it in 1995), i still can't trade like Soros (his less than 30% win rate is tough to endure for starters), but I can and have picked up info that has made me a better trader. In a similar vein, this is what i want to achieve by studying Brook's methods.
btw, @ marketsurfer, page 30, the great man says "Yet, even a cursory look at commodity, stock and currency markets confirms that trends are the rule rather than the exception." No mention of drift!
btw, @ marketsurfer, page 30, the great man says "Yet, even a cursory look at commodity, stock and currency markets confirms that trends are the rule rather than the exception." No mention of drift!
He actually does discuss different ways to enter using either market or limit, depending on the preference of the trader, and the types of ways they control risk with stops such as money stops, entry or signal bar lo/hi stops, etc.
Personally, I read all his futures magazine articles originally (didn't understand them at first, even though I recognized patterns he was discussing), and got interested in his first book from those but as other have indicated and he has admitted himself, it was difficult at best to read it because of the way it was written.
I purchased the re-written books when they were released, and the video series shortly thereafter. I watched the series first, then decided to read his books this year. I found the books far more detailed (IMO), though the series is essentially what's in the books. I'm looking at the series again now (just one or two a week as a refresher to the material in the books) to summarize that which I learned from his approach to the market and apply those aspects that I liked in his discussions to what I've already been doing.
I found the entire study (and it is a study, regardless of what the detractors say) to be very valuable to me. I'm entering far more types of setups than I had previously, even though I 've seen many of the patterns he discusses time again, but never really thought about what goes on with the big money during each of those bars, regardless of time frame. That's what I found interesting. He talks a great deal about how he thinks institutions trade against each other, and how day traders can profit from that. I'll be curious if the OP reaches the same conclusion(s), or if he reaches a completely different conclusion, but still finds it a valuable experience for completely different reasons.
I don't know about balls dragging through glass (ouch)... (I've been try to visualize that since I read it. Would a guy with really low hanging big ones be walking through glass, or crawling, or spider walking, or sledding behind, or doing that thing a dog does when dragging his butt on the carpet?
...I don't think I'll give that one much more thought...{See what you started Frederick?:eek:}....), but it is a long read (and the videos a long watch), especially if you really follow along the charts as he discusses them.I thought the books and slides complimented each other well. I'm not promoting or discouraging his program (obviously some think he is a fraud, and others think he's just sharing his interpretation of the markets (as I do), for which I have no problem compensating him for), but only relating my experience with it, how I learned of it, and what I got out of it. I got my money's worth. My trading has (and continues to be) the judge of that, not opinions of those who didn't understand it, or found no value in it for their own trading, or simply are not even familiar with his books, published articles, and newer series.
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