You can define the breakouts as "noise" if you like but they are simply failed breakouts. That range action prior to and following the first breakout attempt is institutions selling highs and buying lows while pikers are trying to catch breakouts. Most range BO's fail which is why you fade the highs and lows. The pikers are trying to catch tops and bottoms in trends when they should be looking for directional entries. The tighter the range, the more difficult the trading. Most should stay out until price gets trending....and then not try and pick the end to the trend.
This is what I posted in another thread, but I'm sure it went over the head of most: What most people fail to realize is that in a market such as ES which is extremely competitive there are hundreds if not thousands of strategies (manual and algorithmic both) being employed simultaneously with trading decisions being made for a wide variety of reasons/triggers/signals. This, partially explains why liquid index futures move the way they do with plenty of 'noisy' movement. For example, you'll have arbitrage players/algorithms working simultaneously with mean reversion algorithms or trend following algorithms where a mean reversion algorithm will sell a pop and a trending algorithm / BO algorithm may buy it. There's always a tug of war between buyers and sellers. And this is with no mention of hedging activity (which is the reason these markets exist to begin with) where a hedger may dump a larger buy/sell order at market in any given moment at a price they deem favorable. This was also what happened during the Flash Crash. All this makes for a complex market where only the few are making any money consistently. If anyone can do it with KISS, be my guest. But I have not seen any evidence of anyone doing so.
I 100 % agree with this, so not sure why you're afraid I'm missing a big point. In fact, I frequently say that ET is full of "teachers" and "helpers" that are not themselves profitable.
In my opinion, no one has landed a decisive blow against Al Brook's credibility. As such I will be studying Brooks work until Xmas. So prepare to be inundated with his "pearls of wisdom or not". P.S. I think @destriero would eat Al Brooks
Depends, for those who want to put in time and energy it will, but time and energy = Cost. But for the most part very few if any make money every day.
Brooks is like a guy who tells you he's a great basketball player,as good as Michael Jordan, but wont let you watch him play,and no one has ever watched him play.