the key to understanding Al is NOT TO BUY HIS BOOKS I tried to trade reading his books and i lost money for ten years. only when i started seeing his videos on you tube that i started understanding him and made money. he really makes trading simple once you 'get it' ! if you want to spend money-which i did have and so could not do-subscribe to his chat room
But if the key to understanding him is to not buy his books, then I imagine I'll understand him even better if I also don't watch his videos or subscribe to his chat rooms. Not unlike the underlying premise of homeopathy: the less there is of a substance, the more effective is its "healing" power.
I bought his first book soon after it came out. It was the first book I ever returned to Amazon. As far as I'm concerned, and quite apart from the horrible writing, it was fraught with hindsight bias. There were charts where he showed "winning" trades that had preceding price action that would have been losing trades by his own standards, had he bothered to point them out (which he did not). The discretionary nature of his trading allowed for a lot of narrative (fallacy). I only read the first hundred or so pages, but that was enough. With my Amazon refund came clarity.
Trading is rarely, truly just simply black and white...and instant...for everyone. You truly have to be able to see the entire, collective picture of things...and be able to understand and digest it well...and read between the lines, and have a mature, wise, tactical mind...as you approach the jungle safari land that is the market with only a spear in hand. I know this may sound like more vague bs, to the closed-off mind...but this is the roadmap to the Open Seasame cave of golden riches.
With Al Brooks (Jack Hershey, Richard Wyckoff, WDGann...) it's a matter of religious belief, not scientific merit.