What are some useful things learned from Al Brooks price-action books?

[Pekelo]

I appreciate the personal attack, but instead of that, would you mind just remind me of his records?

Yes - several people here do,

Then just post it again for God's sakes! And with the disclaimer: Past performance is not guarantee of future success.

Because just like a floor trader can write a book how to trade on the floor, but those conditions can and did change, so just because a book was good 10 years ago it can be worthless today.

And that is exactly another reason why people would like to see current authors trading real money profitably....

In plain English for you: Where are the readers' yachts?

 

[speedo]

Here ya go Peke

 

[algofy]

Here ya go Peke

Dayyum, who's ship?

 

[SteveM]

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 idiot you are referring to is me. I stand by the comments I made earlier in this thread - what matters to me is whether the things that Al Brooks writes about in his books actually happens real-time in the markets, in a way that allows a trader to structure profitable trades.

What I find fascinating is that I have never once seen an Al Brooks basher come into a thread and attempt to invalidate a concept that Brooks puts forth in his books. Sure, they will attack his writing style, his monotone voice, the fact that he doesn't speak in absolutes, his lack of a published track record - but never once have I seen someone say "yeah I studied chapter 15-18 for six months while observing the markets, and found xyz concept has no validity whatsoever."

That fact alone is very telling, as far as I am concerned.

 

[Pekelo]

What I find fascinating is that I have never once seen an Al Brooks basher come into a thread and attempt to invalidate a concept that Brooks puts forth in his books.

You are trying us to prove a negative, that a certain trading strategy doesn't work. That is a nice way to switch the burden of proof itself.
So let's use your cook book analogy again. It is like saying, this recipe doesn't make that bread at all, without trying out the recipe, just by looking at the ingredients. Wouldn't it be more prudent to actually try and make the judgement call after that?

How about if we just make an observation that because of the lack of yachts of the Brooks' readers/traders, most of those strategies must not work?

 

[digitalnomad]

I have nothing against the guy personally. I've skimmed through his works, and found nothing of value for my style of trading.

Since this is an Al Brooks thread, let's take a key excerpt from one of his articles and try to create something we can scientifically validate. If anyone here can benefit, good for them. If not, keep stroking your drawing boards.

"All that a trader needs to trade profitably is the chart in front of him, no matter what the market, chart type or time frame. Every chart has plenty of trades if a trader knows how to spot and act on them. Remember, even when a market is sideways, there is often plenty of volume on each bar. Even in the tightest trading range on the five-minute E-mini chart, each bar averages about 5,000 contracts. I usually can see a reason to buy or sell on every bar on every market during the day, and with practice, a trader will learn to spot many more setups than he could possibly ever trade. The keys are learning to spot them early enough to decide that they are worth trading, structuring a trade that makes mathematical sense and then managing the trade appropriately."

Al Brooks

 

[wrbtrader]

I have nothing against the guy personally. I've skimmed through his works, and found nothing of value for my style of trading.

Since this is an Al Brooks thread, let's take a key excerpt from one of his articles and try to create something we can scientifically validate. If anyone here can benefit, good for them. If not, keep stroking your drawing boards.

"All that a trader needs to trade profitably is the chart in front of him, no matter what the market, chart type or time frame. Every chart has plenty of trades if a trader knows how to spot and act on them. Remember, even when a market is sideways, there is often plenty of volume on each bar. Even in the tightest trading range on the five-minute E-mini chart, each bar averages about 5,000 contracts. I usually can see a reason to buy or sell on every bar on every market during the day, and with practice, a trader will learn to spot many more setups than he could possibly ever trade. The keys are learning to spot them early enough to decide that they are worth trading, structuring a trade that makes mathematical sense and then managing the trade appropriately."

Al Brooks

In the prior many threads about the same topic...someone else said they were going to do just that...

Take "piece of the puzzle" (a.k.a. excerpt) and make a trade method out of the excerpt to see if the actual trade method could provide scientific validation or quantifiable validation when in reality the excerpt is really just "an opinion" or more like a philosophical statement about the price action.

In addition, they too said the same thing after skimming over the book or videos.

This got me thinking about something after your statement about skimming over the material. Recently, a few weeks ago. My son and I decided to build a homemade kite after skimming through a video we downloaded from Youtube @

It worked great for awhile when it was high up in the air...about 7 floors high until it literally burst...then pieces started falling from the sky to the ground as the plastic bag itself flew away on its own in the wind...As if it was making an escape.

My son was laughing hysterically.

Next time I won't skim over the instructions.

 

[vanzandt]

I have nothing against the guy personally. I've skimmed through his works, and found nothing of value for my style of trading.

Since this is an Al Brooks thread, let's take a key excerpt from one of his articles and try to create something we can scientifically validate. If anyone here can benefit, good for them. If not, keep stroking your drawing boards.

"All that a trader needs to trade profitably is the chart in front of him, no matter what the market, chart type or time frame. Every chart has plenty of trades if a trader knows how to spot and act on them. Remember, even when a market is sideways, there is often plenty of volume on each bar. Even in the tightest trading range on the five-minute E-mini chart, each bar averages about 5,000 contracts. I usually can see a reason to buy or sell on every bar on every market during the day, and with practice, a trader will learn to spot many more setups than he could possibly ever trade. The keys are learning to spot them early enough to decide that they are worth trading, structuring a trade that makes mathematical sense and then managing the trade appropriately."

Al Brooks

He's fooled himself. He can have 50 degree's. Over/under says he goes broke.
No common sense.

 

[algofy]

He's fooled himself. He can have 50 degree's. Over/under says he goes broke.
No common sense.

You seem agitated goofy.

 

[volpri]

I have nothing against the guy personally. I've skimmed through his works, and found nothing of value for my style of trading.

Since this is an Al Brooks thread, let's take a key excerpt from one of his articles and try to create something we can scientifically validate. If anyone here can benefit, good for them. If not, keep stroking your drawing boards.

"All that a trader needs to trade profitably is the chart in front of him, no matter what the market, chart type or time frame. Every chart has plenty of trades if a trader knows how to spot and act on them. Remember, even when a market is sideways, there is often plenty of volume on each bar. Even in the tightest trading range on the five-minute E-mini chart, each bar averages about 5,000 contracts. I usually can see a reason to buy or sell on every bar on every market during the day, and with practice, a trader will learn to spot many more setups than he could possibly ever trade. The keys are learning to spot them early enough to decide that they are worth trading, structuring a trade that makes mathematical sense and then managing the trade appropriately."

Al Brooks

Thats right. All I look at is the chart. No news. No tv. No pundits. The chart will clearly show the reaction to the news. THERE IS A BULLISH REACTION AND A BEARISH REACTION to the news. One side will win. The chart will show which side.

Yes, even in the tighest trading range you can scalp with limit orders ...won't make much but it can be done. No stop orders in such an environment. There is a reason to buy or sell on every bar. Why? Because there is movement on every bar. Institutions move the price whether 1 tick or two ticks or 10 points. You and I with our potatoe chip money and coca cola money do not move the market. If it moves in a tight range that just means there are both bullish and bearish institutions moving it that way ...probing. Sooner or later (usually sooner) it will break out of that range then more money can be made as one side wins..at least for a while. Tight trading ranges aren't usually worth trading but can be traded if you don't mind scalping 1/2 to 1 point on the ES.