What are some useful things learned from Al Brooks price-action books?
- Thread starter learner88
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Maybe start with the videos, there's a number on youtube, may help decide if his style is right for you.
Caveats aside, his paid video course was reasonably priced last time I looked, compared to some other ££££ courses.
Caveats aside, his paid video course was reasonably priced last time I looked, compared to some other ££££ courses.
I think Brooks' 3 volume book is really good but I agree that it is hard to read for various reasons, including poor edit. The arrangement of the paragraphs is insane and looks like it is done so to make sure everyone buys all the volumes (which they should).
In my opinion the biggest value of the book is the general stuff he writes about, the rather obvious stuff that newbies pay little attention to, and then stuff like trade expectancy etc.
I would argue that you could entirely skip the part about his "method" and that pretty much includes most of the charts. That alone would make the reading much easier. Method is something that the trader needs to come up themselves.
Also, you don't need to read the paragraphs the way they are ordered in the book. And Brooks' book needs to be read twice to get something out of it.
Whether Brooks is profitable or not is IMO irrelevant to the value of the book unless you want to be strictly a copycat. It's like claiming someone can't be a good sports coach unless he/she was a gold medalist before etc.
There are a lot of great books on trading but any book can only take you so far. It's really a personal endeavor.
In my opinion the biggest value of the book is the general stuff he writes about, the rather obvious stuff that newbies pay little attention to, and then stuff like trade expectancy etc.
I would argue that you could entirely skip the part about his "method" and that pretty much includes most of the charts. That alone would make the reading much easier. Method is something that the trader needs to come up themselves.
Also, you don't need to read the paragraphs the way they are ordered in the book. And Brooks' book needs to be read twice to get something out of it.
Whether Brooks is profitable or not is IMO irrelevant to the value of the book unless you want to be strictly a copycat. It's like claiming someone can't be a good sports coach unless he/she was a gold medalist before etc.
There are a lot of great books on trading but any book can only take you so far. It's really a personal endeavor.
IMO, you paid too much attention to detail instead focusing on the overall trading related stuff that is much more important than any particular method. That's why I say one should skip the parts of the book strictly related to Brooks' method. The value is elsewhere, although it is almost obvious when you read it.
Also, people complaining about Brooks forgot to notice one of the most important information he said, something along the lines that "this is the way he understands/looks at the market and what is working for him, he is just sharing his views and that he is not interested in any other method except perfecting his own, and he may change if his views change about the market". The meaning of that should be studied deeply as this is the core of the trading.
From what I see of the videos they like to catch major reversals which, to me, is swinging for the fences.
Passing useful info to people is a painful thing. I have a gf who loves junk food. She's not healthy. So I talk to her about nutrient dense foods and whatnot and she makes sure there are lots of candy bars around for me to eat! She would rather I convert to junk food.
I once found a monthly prayer meeting where people were healed of serious stuff, people's eyes were opened, etc. I never thought I'd sit on a folding chair from mid-morning to the wee hours of the next day but I did so every time... I told a couple of my Christian buddies at work about it and after a couple of weeks, with neither of them having checked it out for themselves, they decided I was in a cult. They proceeded to really treat me quite badly.
So yeah, why cater to people that don't want to check things out for themselves or only have minimal interest because they are intellectually lazy? If I was Al Brooks I'd never say if I was successful or not. Why reward people that are too lazy to dig in and sort things out? He's certainly not lazy, you don't learn medicine by being lazy, and I'm sure he writes off lazy naysayers and their opinions as being worthless. He probably has the rare student that learns what he is teaching and comes back with some improvements. If you are hoping for that kind of student you would write off all the lazy naysayers right up front, no?
Passing useful info to people is a painful thing. I have a gf who loves junk food. She's not healthy. So I talk to her about nutrient dense foods and whatnot and she makes sure there are lots of candy bars around for me to eat! She would rather I convert to junk food.
I once found a monthly prayer meeting where people were healed of serious stuff, people's eyes were opened, etc. I never thought I'd sit on a folding chair from mid-morning to the wee hours of the next day but I did so every time... I told a couple of my Christian buddies at work about it and after a couple of weeks, with neither of them having checked it out for themselves, they decided I was in a cult. They proceeded to really treat me quite badly.
So yeah, why cater to people that don't want to check things out for themselves or only have minimal interest because they are intellectually lazy? If I was Al Brooks I'd never say if I was successful or not. Why reward people that are too lazy to dig in and sort things out? He's certainly not lazy, you don't learn medicine by being lazy, and I'm sure he writes off lazy naysayers and their opinions as being worthless. He probably has the rare student that learns what he is teaching and comes back with some improvements. If you are hoping for that kind of student you would write off all the lazy naysayers right up front, no?
It's been years since I read it but what I remember the most is the trend trading on pullbacks, not reversals. He does reversals but from what I remember it was after the market runs its course (per his method).
The part of the book I don't like is trying to apply the method universally across all instruments by showing choice examples. Also his bar by bar explanations of what is going on. Nonsense to me but if it works for him, that's all that matters.
How the fuckaddy fuck would that be irrelevant?? If I write a book on trading would you automatically buy it? When you go to the book store and you see 20 books on trading just how exactly do you decide which one to buy? The one with the colored pictured? Or the author with more hair? (apologies to Al)
And I would like to address here the idiot earlier who used the analogy of a cook book or a flight instruction book, that we don't know if those authors can bake or fly. True, but after reading those book you can LEARN to cook or fly, and you can eat what you cooked, and travel in your plane.
The problem with most trading books is that after reading them people still CAN NOT trade, thus the question of the profitability of the author arises. Nobody would give a shit about Al trading if they could make money after reading his books, but apparently most people can't. And this applies to any trading books, not just Al's.
So yes, it does matter if the ideas actually make money. Cook book recipes actually make food. There is even a saying for fuck's sake: The test of the pudding is eating it. The test of a trading book is, can you make money out of it??
Holy fuck, why there is even a debate about this??? Usually authors at least can point to past performance, like Darvas writing a book AFTER he made 2 millions. Do we know any kind of past performance of Al's???
And just a side note, too much information can be just as bad as not enough information. Want a simple example? Driving directions. I don't need to know in advance all the details how to get there, just tell me at the next cross road if I have to turn left or right. Not to mention being confusing and disorganized, where is Al clearly guilty as sin....
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Yes - several people here do, and they keep explaining that and commenting on it openly and (in some cases) even explaining in some detail how they know ... but the reality is that you choose to ignore those posts, (just like you choose to ignore some of the factual posts about TST made by people with personal experience of them, when you're whining about their business, too.)