Nani? (That's Japanese for "huh"?) Not relevant in the least.
Where should a beginner begin?
- Thread starter tortoise
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Nani? (That's Japanese for "huh"?) Not relevant in the least.
Trading isn't easy as you know because of the pressures in the market swinging from one side to the other and doing so amongst so many variables and unknowns. Every conceivable event can affect the market. However, its impact is unknowable until it happens. Then you got all the unconceivable events because they have yet to be thought of. Sooner or later these too can affect the markets.It's quite a bit of my opinion, too ... if she's the right sort of person to benefit from them.
For the right people, the approach you outline is a solid and excellent one, for sure.
My only reservation is that some will perhaps find it off-puttingly difficult, as I nearly did myself, to be honest ... though you definitely have the order right, to minimize the risk of that happening - which I didn't, at the time (I don't think the videos were available back then).
It's perhaps arguable that the people who get put off aren't really going to become traders anyway - I just don't know whether that's true.
That said, learning to read price action as put forth by brooks, has the capacity or potential to help a trader more correctly "read" and "interpret" the pressures caused by the events as they have effected the markets. In short, the action of price itself produces a sort of conglomeration of roadsigns to certain destinations. However, detours happen quite often as new events in the very near, or longer term, affect market direction. Hence, the roadsigns are not certainties but simply more probable, or at least more feasible, instructions to a trader who understands them. It might be called "the language" of the markets. And anyone who has endeavored to study and speak a new language understands the task at hand. I say all this to say that the winning side of the pressures can to some degree be deduced. At least to some profitable degree over the long haul. It is actually quite useful to view the markets as having a language of its own with all its subleties therein.
The road is full of potholes, and many are unknowable until one falls in the pothole, but there is a road, and it has a destination, and it can be traveled despite the many risks and adventures therein, good and bad. And I might add the destination can be reached successfully.
Just this morning a trade that I took almost immediately hit what appeared to be a pothole. Prior to brooks I probally would have lost on this trade. I deduced the probable price direction correctly and read the roadsigns correctly but i missed seeing the pothole. Once I was in it I reassessed the situation considering the new factor involved i.e. the pothole (more than once I reassessed I might add!) and determined it was probally just a bump in the road that would not cause a tire blowout. Therefore, I took advantage of the situation and opportunity that was handed to me and I scaled in and added to that losing position instead of jumping ship. Then I added a second time. What looked like a "not so good" situation at first glance, actually became an additional opportunity.
I kept my stop at a place and point that supported my interpretation of that market price action and risk level. Within a few minutes I was back to breakeven then shortly thereafter into a handsome profit. Prior to brooks training I probally would have just ended up with a muddy car from the pothole and another day at Mcdonalds instead of a nice steakhouse. Not to say anything negative about Mcdonalds as I do like the plain double cheeseburger with only pickles and mustard on it but most of the time i would opt for a ribeye over a hamburger..(any hamburger).
Nevertheless, it is a long road to refine that skill and does take alot of study and practice to get good at it. In my opinion brooks has the best and most thorough explanations of the concepts but they are not easily and quickly grasped, without much mental exertion and practice.
For the mentally lazy and the impatient trader probally best to not even look at brooks materials and training as you will undoubtedly give up in utter disgust and have nothing but criticism of the man and his understanding and his explanation of the markets and how to trade them.
However, for the hardworking..digging..openminded..focused..trader with a mind trained for mental excertion AND patience then brooks training may indeed change your trading life.
L
lovethetrade
I actually agree with this which confirms the misunderstanding, probably due to the ambiguity of my initial statement.
Given that it's not publicly available and you probably won't read about it in any books, it's really your own philosophy about how the market works.
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It's amazing the number of people who say "oh, I have always been interested in trading but just never had anyone show me how" and then expect you to chug away explaining stuff to them. When I ask what they have done about their interest so far, they just say they don't/didn't know where to get started.
Then you see the same person a few weeks later and they say they are going to Portugal on vacation with their partner and have never been there, but they have visited 623 websites, joined five forums on Portugal, contacted 48 people about Air BnB, have checked 12 cheap air ticket sites, contacted their cousin who has a friend in Portugal, have bought a Rosetta Stone program to learn Portuguese, have learned to convert us dollars to euros in a second, and have already checked on apartment rentals in Lisbon in case they want to stay longer.....etc. etc.
Bunch of bullshitters out there. Trading is one of the most self-directed activities on the planet- day in and day out. I tell people that I am always willing to meet with them to discuss what trading related activities they are working on, even if it is just beginning activities. That works out fine for those who are truly interested but most have a look on their face that says "wait, I was thinking we would have coffee, and you would talk a lot." Heh, whatever.
A few months ago a person I know said he wanted to come by sometime before I started trading in the day to see some things as I started in for the day- even though I had sorta been trying to shake him off. Never came by...he changed his mind a bit when he found out that when I referred to 3 o'clock, that meant 3 in the morning, and no, you don't get used to it.
Then you see the same person a few weeks later and they say they are going to Portugal on vacation with their partner and have never been there, but they have visited 623 websites, joined five forums on Portugal, contacted 48 people about Air BnB, have checked 12 cheap air ticket sites, contacted their cousin who has a friend in Portugal, have bought a Rosetta Stone program to learn Portuguese, have learned to convert us dollars to euros in a second, and have already checked on apartment rentals in Lisbon in case they want to stay longer.....etc. etc.
Bunch of bullshitters out there. Trading is one of the most self-directed activities on the planet- day in and day out. I tell people that I am always willing to meet with them to discuss what trading related activities they are working on, even if it is just beginning activities. That works out fine for those who are truly interested but most have a look on their face that says "wait, I was thinking we would have coffee, and you would talk a lot." Heh, whatever.
A few months ago a person I know said he wanted to come by sometime before I started trading in the day to see some things as I started in for the day- even though I had sorta been trying to shake him off. Never came by...he changed his mind a bit when he found out that when I referred to 3 o'clock, that meant 3 in the morning, and no, you don't get used to it.
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While I don't want to share any responsibility for turning this into yet another Al Brooks thread, the idea of spending 2 or 3 years studying videos and another "few years" studying four books prompts an esophageal response. That so many vendors seek to make this so difficult (and only the vendor can provide salvation) is I suspect the chief reason why the failure rate is so high (there are of course other reasons, like laziness).
Someone who knows absolutely nothing about trading, and, presumably, the markets, needs to understand demand and supply (which is a law, not a philosophy), and that prices rise when buying pressure exceeds selling pressure and fall when selling pressure exceeds buying pressure. Who's doing the trading and when and where and how and why is all important, but unless one understands that prices rise and fall due to imbalances between buying and selling pressures, the rest of it is of no importance. And it doesn't take years to understand this. Months, maybe. Perhaps even weeks. Some people get it in an afternoon. Granted the colors and candles and indicators and lines and shapes confuse the issue, but if one can sit down with a beginner with a simple line chart (to avoid being distracted by bars and candles and colors), the true basics can be grasped quite easily. Once the "why" of price movement is understood (price rises because demand is greater than supply and vice versa), there is a "conceptual framework" within which to fit all the pegs. And it doesn't cost a dime. If one skips these basics, however, and attempts to learn to trade "by doing", i.e., inductively, he not only will be spending a great deal more time in the effort but will most likely be faced with having to back up and relearn what he should have learned in the first place, all the while attempting to forget everything he's learned that has turned out not to be true.
Those who seek to work with beginners would do well to think about the Hippocratic Oath: first, do no harm.
Someone who knows absolutely nothing about trading, and, presumably, the markets, needs to understand demand and supply (which is a law, not a philosophy), and that prices rise when buying pressure exceeds selling pressure and fall when selling pressure exceeds buying pressure. Who's doing the trading and when and where and how and why is all important, but unless one understands that prices rise and fall due to imbalances between buying and selling pressures, the rest of it is of no importance. And it doesn't take years to understand this. Months, maybe. Perhaps even weeks. Some people get it in an afternoon. Granted the colors and candles and indicators and lines and shapes confuse the issue, but if one can sit down with a beginner with a simple line chart (to avoid being distracted by bars and candles and colors), the true basics can be grasped quite easily. Once the "why" of price movement is understood (price rises because demand is greater than supply and vice versa), there is a "conceptual framework" within which to fit all the pegs. And it doesn't cost a dime. If one skips these basics, however, and attempts to learn to trade "by doing", i.e., inductively, he not only will be spending a great deal more time in the effort but will most likely be faced with having to back up and relearn what he should have learned in the first place, all the while attempting to forget everything he's learned that has turned out not to be true.
Those who seek to work with beginners would do well to think about the Hippocratic Oath: first, do no harm.
Saying microstructure isn’t relevant is a very wide brush stroke. Many different types of players.
LOTS of different kinds of players, of course (mostly wrong). But their pursuits are not in tune with with the market's thingy, so it's all just pissn' into the wind.
Yup. Might as well just go flip burgers. I hear they're paying $15/hr in some places now.
Lol but they can't afford the rent in those places.Yup. Might as well just go flip burgers. I hear they're paying $15/hr in some places now.