I don't disagree. I would only add that the maturity and market experience of his students needs to be a factor. I don't see anyone picking up Al's methods becoming a maker in just a few (say, three) years, unless they already have a body of prior experience. Also, I don't see someone being Al's purist becoming successful either. One has to literally be Al for that. To me, his methods make sense because of what I already know. I don't have to "believe" them and so I don't need someone else's success to vet them for me. I think much of the trading crowd out there yearns for someone to say "I make money because I learned *this*", so that they can go and learn it too. Dear all, *this* does not exist. /Wulfrede
ummm, and why the hell not? if al does what he does in his books, trading course and presentations and makes verifiable money. well why shouldn't i be able to do it? reminder, this is not rocket science, either you are trading in the higher probability direction or you are not. its that simple. ok, so what the hell is the point of a TRADING COURSE if learning from someone how to trade DOES NOT EXIST. holy cow, its like a giant paradox around here.
I am sorry it didn't work out for you. It's a very tough pill to swallow. I had to swallow mine some years ago. BTW, since you clearly didn't bother reading any of my prior 25 posts but yet took the time to jab at me, it may appear that you lack the elbow grease necessary to do basic research and are a bit trigger happy. Just food for thought. /Wulfrede
to be honest, its really not that tough. i woke up one day, decided this stuff was complete garbage (no better than a coin flip), and that was that. it really wasnt all that dramatic although it may seem that way from my message board postings. looks like im one of the few who can admit it, most people will delude themselves to their grave.
Al Brooks gives out some quality edges. Unfortunately, he reads like a ticker tape. It's not that bad, Chiky. Have faith. Remortgage the house.
lol, name one. ok, good point. one of als most preached setups is to buy a "high 2" at the moving average in a "bull" or sell a "low 2" at the moving average in a "bear" so, i did backtest just that. i defined bull and bear using strong breakout (series of large trend bars) as my definition, then i took a look at all the second entries at the moving average, i set a stop = to my target and guess what? COIN FLIP! Results were 50/50! no joke! so if that is one of his most talked about setups, then holy cow, the rest must also be totally random nonsense.
Come again? hmm... there's a couple decent journals. Buying tops and selling bottoms is usually a winner, if a trader can learn to sit on their hands and not dick about...
LOL! here is a dose of reality for you--- you know any of these average guys who make 100k per year trading after quiting their average job? You are deluded and twisted in a sad way. I didnt' think so. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wages-stink-americas-most-common-095900890.html "America's most common jobs come with lousy pay. Workers in seven of the 10 largest occupations typically earn less than $30,000 a year, according to new data published Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's a far cry from the nation's average annual pay of $45,790. Food prep workers are the third most-common job in the U.S., but have the lowest pay, at a mere $18,720 a year for 2012. Cashiers and waiters are also popular professions, but the average pay at these jobs tallies up to less than $21,000 annually. There are 4.3 million retail sales workers out there, making them the most common job, but the position pays only $25,310 for the year. Among the 10 most popular professions, only the nation's 2.6 million registered nurses earn a good living, bringing home nearly $68,000 a year on average. Another two of the most common jobs -- secretaries and customer service representatives -- have an average annual wage of about $33,000."
You are right, this is not rocket science. That doesn't mean trading is any simpler to master. Let me take this view for a moment: There are only two types of winning traders out there: One is an institutional guy who uses built-in edges such as a quote-to-fair (market maker), order flow, client knowledge (taker), superior technology, etc. that come with the house he works for. He is highly trained to use all of these edges and he makes money all the time while at the firm. Unsurprisingly, he is almost invariably worthless on his own when stripped of the house. Another is a private guy who doesn't have any of the above (some do have great technology but it's still very incomplete). However, he makes money all the time because he has a very intimate and almost intuitive understanding of market dynamics in his product space. The former type can be taught as long as he has a reasonable amount of intelligence and is willing to work hard. He will always work for a paycheck (unless he goes the OPM way, but that's a different story) The latter can be shown the way but he has to work extremely hard to teach his own self. To paraphrase, trading on one's own is a martial art in its pure form. It is worth knowing. Al's methods show you a way. There are many ways. You still have to teach your own self and make these ways your own. This can take a very long time with several grandiose failures along the path. So, the point of a trading course is to learn one particular way. To see how someone thinks about the market. I think it is great when an experienced trader is willing to share this. I would also say, it is great when even a failed trader is willing to share this. Either way, you get to learn. /Wulfrede