Study buddy for Al Brooks books

[speedo]

I find it surprising on ET that every time there is discussion on Al Brooks there are numerous posts no how he is not a real trader etc. I am in touch with at least 5 traders from my country who follow just Al Brooks and have benefitted from his books. We chat almost everyday on social media platforms like telegram for sharing notes, current charts with comments etc. Reading his books certainly helped many of us improve or trading. From the perspective of Al Brooks' readers, these comments don't really matter or even bother us.

The more the ignorance of his work, the louder the criticism. Best to simply ignore the trolling.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

There is a lot of color commentary, but I don't think people read long enough to get to the guidance portion; Book 3 - Chapter 24: The Best Trades, putting it all together. Outlines everything.

Regarding only commentary in his trading room, no idea. I haven't joined the chat room (nor do I plan to) and I didn't bother with the video course.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Brooks is an end all be all to trading and I'm sure people can make money an infinite amount of ways in the markets. Brooks style and price-action teaching resonated with me so I chose to pursue it. I'm moreso sharing here for the future beginners trying to figure out where to start, or if they should even bother with this guy, if they stumble across this thread.

Okay, your response is measured, and I respect that. But you had to get through almost 2,000 pages to get to the good stuff?!

From my limited exposure to his work, he always straddled the fence with his if-then scenarios, never really taking a position either figuratively or literally. Which is kind of the opposite of what I gather traders should be doing. So what kind of example is he setting?

The other thing I find incongruent is that, if memory serves, he talks about trading bar by bar, where every single bar can potentially be a trade setup. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) Now how does that work in real time? To be able to trade with such immediacy, your method needs to be sufficiently internalized to be almost automatic. Impenetrable writing across four books covering ~2,000 pages suggests anything but automaticity. How you guys don't develop paralysis from analysis in real time is utterly beyond me.

My hat is off to you.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

The more the ignorance of his work, the louder the criticism. Best to simply ignore the trolling.

Trolling. Is that when someone doesn't agree with you? Did I insult you or any of the posters here? Anyone who gets easily offended should have a closer look at their beliefs. And by your own account, I've read more of what he's written than you did. So if I'm the troll, where does that leave you?

 

[speedo]

Yes I put the first book down shortly after receiving as I found it awkwardly constructed and had a scalping methodology which I was comfortable with. I've since, starting with the videos and then revisiting the books found great benefit from the study. You've asked for examples of where I used the ideas in the past and I provided a few to you. Yet every time Brooks comes up our you come guns blazing. Give it a rest dude, seriously.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

I stand corrected. For the benefit of the Brooks students here, what did you learn from him that is not generic TA which you could have picked up from a myriad of other, more comprehensible and succinct sources? A couple of examples would be instructive.

 

[speedo]

I stand corrected. For the benefit of the Brooks students here, what did you learn from him that is not generic TA which you could have picked up from a myriad of other, more comprehensible and succinct sources? A couple of examples would be instructive.

I gave you a couple last year Fred. I've also posted a number charts in the past showing setups and why they were setups, now I'm done with these discussions. Everyone can assign credibility where they will. These threads are largely an absurdity.....waiting for Godot.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

I gave you a couple last year Fred. I've also posted a number charts in the past showing setups and why they were setups, now I'm done with these discussions. Everyone can assign credibility where they will. These threads are largely an absurdity.....waiting for Godot.

In all candor, I do vaguely recall such an exchange, although I think it was more than a year ago. I did a search but I cannot seem to find it.

And now if you'll forgive me, Godot is waiting.

 

[speedo]

In all candor, I do vaguely recall such an exchange, although I think it was more than a year ago. I did a search but I cannot seem to find it.

And now if you'll forgive me, Godot is waiting.

It may have been longer yes, time flies. BTW they say he's coming.

 

[Georpe]

Okay, your response is measured, and I respect that. But you had to get through almost 2,000 pages to get to the good stuff?!

From my limited exposure to his work, he always straddled the fence with his if-then scenarios, never really taking a position either figuratively or literally. Which is kind of the opposite of what I gather traders should be doing. So what kind of example is he setting?

The other thing I find incongruent is that, if memory serves, he talks about trading bar by bar, where every single bar can potentially be a trade setup. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) Now how does that work in real time? To be able to trade with such immediacy, your method needs to be sufficiently internalized to be almost automatic. Impenetrable writing across four books covering ~2,000 pages suggests anything but automaticity. How you guys don't develop paralysis from analysis in real time is utterly beyond me.

My hat is off to you.

Without going through a good portion of the work it does feel that he's straddling a fence (especially in the first book). It isn't until further into the work that there is more explanation around those if/then scenarios. To me, it felt like a catch-22...he basically outlines all of the possible trades (with surrounding context) on a chart and broadly says (until Book 3) only experienced traders should try taking most of the trades. A beginner doesn't really know when to trade more/less until they get the experience to know better...to get the experience you need to trade, so you're compelled to try and take them all - at least I was.

Looking back, going through the frustration of losing only to later be told why as I worked more through the books was necessary to drive concepts home and is similar to a formal education in college or a trade school (pun not intended). With practice/experience comes skill. Lesson plans build from foundation up to more complex ideas, often contradicting the base learning when you get to more complex ideas. For the trades, you're not going to become a contractor until you've apprenticed with tradesmen and developed the needed skills. I found Brooks work no different.

The whole bar-by-bar trade setups seems more or less misleading/bad communication to me. If I were to try to explain it in a brief sentence or two...it's more that every bar on any chart/timeframe has meaning because markets are fractal. This means any bar could theoretically be a signal bar and you don't need to look at other charts because you can infer what's happening on other timeframes based on your one chart of focus (example; a doji is just a trading range on a smaller timeframe, so view it as a one bar trading range). You could hypothetically take a trade on every bar if you're a maniac and the traders equation works but that's not realistic at all.

Oh I'm sure most get analysis paralysis and it's probably why so many people fail with Brooks approach. My day job deals with a lot of data analysis so I nerd out on stuff like this.

I'll also be the first to agree with you that the writing sure is a slog, holy hell.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

Without going through a good portion of the work it does feel that he's straddling a fence (especially in the first book). It isn't until further into the work that there is more explanation around those if/then scenarios. To me, it felt like a catch-22...he basically outlines all of the possible trades (with surrounding context) on a chart and broadly says (until Book 3) only experienced traders should try taking most of the trades. A beginner doesn't really know when to trade more/less until they get the experience to know better...to get the experience you need to trade, so you're compelled to try and take them all - at least I was.

Looking back, going through the frustration of losing only to later be told why as I worked more through the books was necessary to drive concepts home and is similar to a formal education in college or a trade school (pun not intended). With practice/experience comes skill. Lesson plans build from foundation up to more complex ideas, often contradicting the base learning when you get to more complex ideas. For the trades, you're not going to become a contractor until you've apprenticed with tradesmen and developed the needed skills. I found Brooks work no different.

The whole bar-by-bar trade setups seems more or less misleading/bad communication to me. If I were to try to explain it in a brief sentence or two...it's more that every bar on any chart/timeframe has meaning because markets are fractal. This means any bar could theoretically be a signal bar and you don't need to look at other charts because you can infer what's happening on other timeframes based on your one chart of focus (example; a doji is just a trading range on a smaller timeframe, so view it as a one bar trading range). You could hypothetically take a trade on every bar if you're a maniac and the traders equation works but that's not realistic at all.

Oh I'm sure most get analysis paralysis and it's probably why so many people fail with Brooks approach. My day job deals with a lot of data analysis so I nerd out on stuff like this.

I'll also be the first to agree with you that the writing sure is a slog, holy hell.

A very thoughtful and considered post. However, we will continue to disagree. Even so, I wish you the best in your trading.