"Schooled as a scientist" LOL. Why not just admit you couldn't make volume work for you and leave it at that? No doubt you can trade without using volume, but disregarding one of the two independent variables in a system when learning about the system is hardly scientific. Unless, of course, you have no interest in learning about the system as a whole. In any case, there is not just one way to extract from the market. The system has so much loose change rolling around that precise methods are not required to pick some of them up.
That right, baby. Forensic chemist.. summa cum laude. You're obviously a "volume zealot" also, so I don't expect anything to penetrate. I was posting on this thread for others. BTW... I never said "you can't make money using volume"... rather, "you'll make more money if you don't use volume". You ever do anything of note?
Nah, nothing of note. I have 3 degrees (BS, JD, LLM) but didn't get much use out of 'em. Just been trading most of my adult life using volume, nothing to brag about. You got me beat with your accomplishment, champ.
Thanks for the link but couldn't get it to work. I've searched but can't find anywhere he gave a paid seminar. Futures mag and other information vendors don't pay system developers to review their stuff, just to let you know. I again agree that his 5 minute charts are off the wall. Never defended them, just his process. I trade nothing like he does. There are many on ET I defend but I don't trade anything like them. The only people that think publishing books is going to make someone enough money to comfortably live on is those that don't write books. Running a hedge fund is a pain in the ass. If you think someone who has a consistently successful strategy would choose to run a hedge fund, you are nuts. People that have no consistent long term strategy or who know that their systems only work for short periods are the ones that run funds. They need to make the management fee to survive because they damn sure can't live off the consistent performance of their funds.
Thank you for this and also for your other posts in this thread. You`ve further convinced me to experiment with and BACKTEST constant volume bars somewhere down the road. I can understand that readers are disappointed by Al`s book if they thought it would serve them a profitable method on a silver platter without any effort on their part and without having to incorporate it into their own understanding of market dynamics. Plug and play! Free money! Yay! Personally, I`ve read and studied the book three times and the third time I actually re-wrote large parts of the book in a language I understand, annotated most of the charts, etc. Some of the concepts were discarded, some of the stuff he says not to pay attention to is important to my style of trading and there is a lot more to my trading than just Al Brooks. As an example he seems to pay less attention to levels and higher timeframes and focuses mostly on each individual bar. For me it`s more the other way around. That said, he truly opened my eyes to a new way of exploring and reading price action, BAR BY BAR Furthermore, readers and traders should not be concerned with Al`s bottomline if his information can help them improve theirs after BACKTESTING his strategies on their own, picking up what`s useful and discarding what`s not. There is a lot of snake oil sellers out there, I honestly don`t believe Al is one of them. Not everyone wants to trade off a short-term chart either and that`s a personal choice and matter of style, but then they should not pick up a book like this to begin with. Best regards, LF
You obviously did not understand much of the book, but I will try to enlighten you and others who may think like you. - Yes, he talks about institutional traders, but he never claims that they use his setups or his method of analyzing the market. One of the premises in TA and price action analysis is that the big players leave predictable footprints in the market place and that small traders like us can piggyback them when we learn to spot them. - Do you even understand what a "High 2" is? Not that it is a big part of the book. I just assume that you don`t, since it was one of the things that was really poorly explained. - He explicitly states that new traders should NEVER trade during "barb-wire" which he labels as noise. He also states that a trader should learn to sit on his hands for hours and only take the select few trades during a day instead of CHURNING his account like you call it. And on the subject, he HIGHLY advices against the 1-minute chart because there are too many fake moves and too many signals. - As for using a stop (not a limit) to enter a trade, the difference is that instead of anticipating, he is willing to give up a few ticks in order to achieve a HIGHER win percentage due to the fact that if price trades beyond his stop, the probability that it will reach his target is higher. So yeah, he might be giving up ticks, but overall his win rate is increased and there is less CHURNING of the account. A lot of traders trade like this, so it`s not an invention of Al. I use it myself, but it has more merit on momentum instruments like crude oil which often takes off without looking back after breaking out as opposed to the ES which typically retraces even on a breakout. - As for the close of the bar, that is obviously very important. Time validates price, yes? Some will argue that 5 is a random number, but 5,10,15 minute charts are watched by many participants. If price penetrates a level and trades beyond/above for most of the duration of the bar and closes there, surely it means something else than if price simply spiked for a few seconds and retreated? -A 2 point stop is not very tight in the ES market under normal market conditions if your entries are crisp and you know how to read price action. Obviously, in periods of increased volatility you will need to lower your size and widen your stop, but wider profit targets usually make up for the decreased size. The only thing I don`t agree with him on is using a 2-point stop to scalp a 1-point profit, but I can`t say that it really bothers me. Seriously. I hate trying to convince non-believers, but aggressive stupidity usually gets on my nerves, so I can`t help it
Sorry for posting my "aggressive" opinions... The guy is a charlatan in my eyes so I'm just giving my 2 cents on a public forum. I apologize if that frustrates you. I would love to see his audited P/L of 20 yrs since his strategies seem like such bullsh1t... that would make me a believer. But yea, who would even written 3 books in a 2 month span after being profitable for two decades... with a scalable intraday strategy. The guy must have a $50M net worth. He obviously writes the books as charity... just as other profitable traders such as John Paulson. He prob used trendlines on 5 minute charts too.
You`re entitled to your own opinion, I just wish you had something to back it with so that we could have an actual discussion here You were not even interested in discussing the actual price action concepts that you did not understand? That speaks volumes. I have no idea why Al wrote that book, I`m just glad he did. But I highly doubt it was to get rich. There could be several reasons a guy writes a book beyond financial motivation. A flexible mind is a must for a trader, so let`s brainstorm a few: - He wants recognition for his work both from the industry and also from his friends and family who thinks he is a degenerate gambler - He enjoys teaching - He enjoys writing - He wants to leave a legacy - He wants to impress people - He wants to impress himself and go into a bookstore and pick up his own book from the shelf - Etc... I don`t know much about that Paulson guy, except that I heard he was down a lot of money this year? Soros has written a lot of books. I`m sure what he pocketed from those where only change compared to what he has extracted from the financial markets. Finally, it does not matter to you whether Al is profitable or not. Perhaps he is a great price action reader, but has disciplinary problems and barely breaks even because of that? Just an example. Does that make his observations and setups less reliable for your part? Regards, LF
IMO, back in his ophthomology days he wrote published research papers as a lot of doctors do and I think he is simply treating his trading career in much the same way as in being fully immersed in it whether it be books, seminars, chat rooms, answering 1000's of questions for FREE, etc..