I appreciate the reply and just want to add one final commentary from me about the use of indicators is that my commentary was directed at those "traders that bash using indicators" while themselves are using indicators via the facade it's not an indicator. I myself got nothing against using indicators and have witnessed personally (in person) a fellow trader consistently profitably using indicators even though I myself don't use them. Mark
Mark ... I agree. There are many ways to skin the cat. The reason I wanted to weigh in is that I feel a real debt to AL. He has attempted to share what he knows. His writing style is unusual -- lol -- but we all work with what we have. Are you "pure" PA in your trading?
I don't know what is your definition of "pure PA". Yet, here's my opinion of price action trading...there are two basic groups of traders that are price action trading. 1) Traders that use charts...sometimes this is refer to as chart reading of price patterns or key price areas without indicators. 2) Traders that use time & sales/bid & ask screens...sometimes this is refer to as tape reading involving order flow without charts. I myself fall primarily in the category of 1) even though I use time & sales info to help a little with my position size management. Thus, technically there's a 3rd group of price action traders that use both 1) and 2) like me although for different reasons. Mark
# 1 is essentially what I meant. QUOTE]Quote from wrbtrader: 1) Traders that use charts...sometimes this is refer to as chart reading of price patterns or key price areas without indicators. Mark [/B][/QUOTE]
Dax ... It is every bit as difficult to read as others say it is. But it is worth the difficulty. Al has not invented a new dialect of English he has invented a new freakin' language ... and you get no dictionary to decipher it. That said I will buy every book the man ever writes. He is a real price action guy.
I was looking for AL Brooks website and came across this site. I was amazed at the the lack of intelligence of the posters here. BEWARE! These posters have no clue what they are talking about. I've been to Al Brooks' trading room and have read his book. It is one of the best price action books out there. It isn't for beginners but his trading advice is right on. It gives you a great foundation for trading if you can understand it. The posts here show ignorance! Posters like these are the ones that hurt learning traders. Do yourself a favor don't listen to these guys.
Hi Mark, I haven't dropped in on this thread for a long time, so sorry for not addressing this. I keep a 20-period moving average on my charts in every time frame, but it's not an indicator; in other words, it doesn't indicate anything in particular. Stochastics and RSI indicate "overbought/oversold" conditions, which are meaningless in a strong trend; Bollinger bands are an indicator of volatility. These are rather nebulous concepts. A moving average is a mobile support/resistance zone that can be useful because of the sheer number of traders/trading systems that use it for with-trend support/resistance pullback entries. During stable market conditions, the 20-period moving average serves as a reasonable S/R zone to enter a position in the direction of a defined trend. In a range, the 20-period MA is flat. Again, you don't need the moving average displayed to tell you that price is in a range and a flat moving average is useless as a S/R level; the boundaries of the range or channel define S/R until a breakout finally occurs. I imagine you could say the moving average is an "indicator" in that the direction of its slope indicates whether a trend is in progress in your time frame, but you can look at price bars or a line chart alone and recognize a trend without a moving average to tell you. Just as I use previous swing highs/swing lows or trend lines as S/R levels, I also use the 20-period MA as a high probability S/R level in a trending move. I've traded strictly from the DOM (bid/ask price ladder) and found that it limits my ability to let a winning trade run. Trading from charts using S/R levels gives me the ability to target the pivot points with great precision, and I sometimes can string together back to back trades in opposite directions this way. I can't imagine how I could do that without charts to paint the price road map for me. I also found that using the charts, and not the DOM, for trade management to be ideal. I recently picked up Al Brooks' book after a long absence and found easy to read and completely comprehensible. Through nearly two years of live trading experience and post-market analysis I've learned to recognize and trade off of everything he describes in his book. I found it be an amazing book from the moment I first started reading it, though it was the most difficult trading book I've ever read, and it took me months to get through most of it. But now everything in that book makes perfect sense to me. It's a superb price action bible and it contains many "keys to the kingdom" for those willing to master the price action concepts described.
I agree with all..tough book..I read the same page 2 times before I move on and read a page in AM and 1 in PM and try to see what he is saying in my trading during the day..I feel that I will have to read the book 3x to get anything real good from it but I am a slow learner ;o) I am probably only on page 40 of book now and embarrased to ask but I cant say I totally get the High 1 High 2 concept...the charts seem labeled poorly and it seems that there are times that the numbers dont come close to the bar he is referencing..Am I just that dumb or is this true? Can someone tell me in English the definition and point it out on ans stock chart I can pull up..Daily chart please..Appreciate anyone willing to take a few min to explain. I will be on this forum daily going forward for what its worth.