how to understand Al Brooks

Discussion in 'Educational Resources' started by padutrader, Apr 24, 2018.

  1. zenemini

    zenemini

    He should have defined them the first time he used them. He did not. I do know when I first read that Bar by Bar book, I looked high and low for the definitions of his terms and could not find them. On that ground, the book is worthless to someone like me. Why don't you give us the page number in Bar by Bar that he defines and makes clear his use of those terms.


    This smacks of "blaming the victim" for not understanding his secret lingo. This is clearly a time where one should blame the messenger. Based on Bar by Bar, I cannot recommend anyone inflict his entire four books on him- or herself.
     
    #161     Apr 29, 2018
  2. Xela

    Xela


    Undoubtedly ... I feel like something of an "old-timer" (just on this subject, you understand!) in that they didn't exist when I started.

    I only wish they had - it would doubtless have made the process far easier for me.

    (I did buy the video course, some years later, to check them out, mostly for the purpose of seeing whether or not I should be recommending them to people who ask, and decided that I clearly should. I think I paid only $250, at the time, so the price has gone up, since then, but is still outstandingly good value at $350 - for about 35 hours of high-quality tuition spread over about 55 videos, as I remember).



    I agree completely. I now find myself recommending the videos as an introduction to the books, in spite of having seen them the other way round, myself.
     
    #162     Apr 29, 2018
  3. volpri

    volpri

    ROFLMAO! He can’t please everyone. He develops the TAXONOMY as he wishes. His writing style is as he talks and is how he wishes to do it. They are his books and his works. The definitions are there. Dig them out yourself!

    If you can’t recommend the books fine....leave em be...let the friends remain losers LOL

    If you find the books useless why put them back in the basement? Give them away ..or sell them...

    You think brooks is hard..well...read The Taylor Trading Technique.

    ROFLMAO
     
    #163     Apr 29, 2018
  4. volpri

    volpri

    ROFLMO then don’t watch them anymore.
     
    #164     Apr 29, 2018
  5. padutrader

    padutrader

    yep that is what I said see the videos not the book

    and after i saw his videos i just trade reversals.....so you get in much earlier then the pull backs
     
    #165     Apr 29, 2018
  6. wrbtrader

    wrbtrader

    Do you have a link to the free video you were watching ???

    The only two negatives I've seen in Al's videos...one is not trading related and the other is trading related.

    Trading Related

    Al's biggest theme is "price action trading". Strangely, he uses an indicator...a price action moving average. That's an indicator. That confuses me because the education is label as "price action trading" when it should be label as "one indicator trading".

    I think (guessing) he labels it as price action trading because he puts more focus on the bar to bar analysis in comparison to his use of that one indicator...a price moving average. Yet, I'm old school...if you're using an indicator...you can't call yourself a "price action trader". In contrast, I do understand some traders stating they are not making their trade decisons "alone" by that one indicator being used.

    A few years later I came across one of Al's videos by accident or via an unusual situation. although I had been aware in prior years that they were available on Youtube...the free stuff.

    I've seen traders in person use Al method's successfully (profitable) and I've seen other traders in person traders not successful (not profitable) although these were very small durations of trading...a few days. Simply, I've seen both camps with my own two eyes in real money trading and the mixed results tells me there's more to it...leads me into the next topic.

    No merit to debating if it works or not works.

    Not Trading Related


    Its more to do with his "voice" and the flow from complicated terms to the next via that voice. I've often hear complaints by others about how he writes or how he talks. Al's voice reminds me of a medical ethics professor I had in college...it was like there's something in his throat that resulted in this "scratchy" type of voice...

    Very irritating to listen to and it reminded me of that difficult class I had taken in college. The voice was so irritating that I moved my seating from the front of the class (near the professor) to all the way in the back of the class in a failed effort to lesson the irritation. Eventually I settle on bringing a recorder to class and would just sit in the back with head phones on and listening to jazz music. A memory that would resurface again in my rehab (explained later below).

    The other thing I notice in the videos was that they are lessons for those that have already read or familiarize with prior types of techinical terms he's used in "books". Yet, someone came up with a better analogy. Its like learning another language...if you've ever taken a language class by a teacher with a voice that "irritates" your ears...the class...will be a tough pill to swallow or endure...sitting there and listening to the teacher. You're then in the position that you must find a way to get through the class with a passing grade to earn the course credit or to escape without having to retake the class again. :(

    Saltynuts, that's why the "um" bothers you...its nothing trading related considering its the only issue you mentioned. :sneaky:

    Serious example now. I was released from the hospital late 2016 (in one country) and transfered to a rehab facility (in another country)...very complicated situation & complicated transportation for the hospital/rehab involved. They would not allow me to take a regular passenger plane because they said they are still "liable" and it was too dangerous for me.

    Two nurses had to travel with me for the transportation.

    I had a "team of doctors"...literally upon my arrival at the rehab...a few from the rehab, the rest from a famous nearby hospital along with my own private doctor of 16 years. One particular doctor or a PhD student (she hated when I called her that in reference to the PhD because I implied she was new and just starting to get real on the job experience) was a psycho-therapist.

    As a trader...my personal doctor already knew how much more my mind was especially in the cognitive decision making process. Something him & I had many conversations about at family dinners & outdoor get togethers prior to my hospitalization/rehab.

    At first, this was scary because I thought the issues was physical related from the pneumonia/coma and nothing to do with my brain until I was quickly schooled by recent scan results...the multiple strokes. I was no longer more concerned about walking again...literally.

    Anyways, about 5 hours per week I was with this psycho therapist...mainly being tested and a few times being hooked up to machines while being tested. I remember a few times she had convesation with a colleague...it was about the cognitive & decision making. She had to redesign many aspects of her testing for my particular situation which till this day...I don't fully understand what the problem was. The psycho therapist had arrange for me to view some videos with audio, videos without audio, audio alone and text (books) that correlated with the videos & audio.

    At first it was one video per session. Later it grew to 2 - 3 videos per session.

    There was one particular video among the 24 or so videos. It happen to be an Al Brooks video that I was sure it must have been downloaded from Youtube...apparently it was not from Youtube. I thought my psycho-therapist was joking or someone would jump out from behind a door and say "surprise".

    I watched other videos in English, French and Lakota on various topics.

    Later, I quickly notice a pattern with these testing procedures. She would have normal conversations with me for about 15 mins - 30 mins involving many things that seemed ridiculous to me at the time but I realized later about their importance. Then she would suddenly end our normal conversation and have me answer questions about the details in the videos, audios or text book (short stories) I had just recently seen/listen/read prior to our conversation...

    Testing my memory and cognitive decision making when given related or none related tests. This was a serious brain workout...more difficult to using a wheelchair, then a walker, then walking up & down stairs and finally to running laps on a local track...now today running & biking faster than my times when I was in college.

    The one thing I remember about that Al Brooks video was the irritation by the voice. The latter was important to my psycho-therapist...the irritation. She was really interested in every aspect about it and I would often see her taking notes whenever I explained such to her.

    thing that really had "nothing" to do with trading although the video was about a teacher. Yet, there were other videos, text short stories and audio short stories but that video hit a nerve...the audio...the voice.

    Fast forward in my rehab...I have learned that our biases, fears, hate, happiness, comfort or whatever you want to call it is linked to "sound" and it impacts what we're able to remember or comprehend. Simply, Al's voice irritates me greatly and it will impact everything (e.g. if I would read his books) including my ability to comphrehend the info.

    Recently, a ex-army buddy stated he saw a range of emotions on my face when I talked different languages on the cell phone while doing extreme hiking in the Northwest U.S...talking from a mountain to my children via cell phone when in reality it was the "sound" (audio) of the other person voice I was listening too. My oldest speaks all three languages fluent and has a bad habit of doing it in the same conversation while my youngest struggles with English and tries very hard to avoid it.

    Maybe this is all too deep for me to explain especially via the fact that I speak different languages but I'm learning that what we read (the text) at this forum would greatly be different (how we interpret & comprehend) than what we hear (audio) if the same message texts were available as audio...beyond words and charts.

    Now fast forward again...about 1 1/2 years later...a few extreme camping & hiking trips, running & biking faster than my times prior to the illness as if the near death experience was just a hiccup on the radar...

    I'm back to my old self...phsically & mentally. Yet, I view trading a lot different than I did before. Especially the issue involving text, audio and videos (visual). Things I never consider as important or underestimated their importance while growing up and living (raised) in two different countries, in college, military, day to day conversations along with the multitude of communicating in different languages online prior to my hospitalization/rehab experience.

    I have a better understanding about why one of my children speaks all three of my languages fluently while the other speak two fluently and seems to have difficulty with the English language.

    English is irritating to him regardless to the speaker and I need to make more of an effort to make English comfortable & welcoming for him as it is for him in Lakota and French.

    Ways to get it to sink in between the ears and applicable.

    wrbtrader
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2018
    #166     Apr 29, 2018
  7. padutrader

    padutrader

    this is just my 4 th day in ET and i am greatly impressed by the analytical prowess of many of those i have come across.
    not surprisingly since traders must possess analytical ability to process information and then to focus completely on the result, filtering all the noise tempting you to bail out of the correct trade.
     
    #167     Apr 29, 2018
  8. padutrader

    padutrader

    do you want the link to that video?
     
    #168     Apr 29, 2018
  9. wrbtrader

    wrbtrader

    Yes...I would like to see if its just as irritating to me now as the one I saw before or if I can sit through it this time. :D

    Thanks

    wrbtrader
     
    #169     Apr 29, 2018
  10. zenemini

    zenemini

    That should not be the readers job. You said the definitions are there. I did attempt to dig them out. Since you said they were there, I asked you to point them out to us. As an apparent Brooks evangelist, you should have no problem doing so. The fact that you refuse to do that for us, and instead you act like an immature little douche, indicates that I am correct, and Brooks just pulls terms out of his ass in his books.

    You seem to be conceding that Brooks never defines his terms in Bar by Bar. If he does, then, if not you, then perhaps some other Brooks acolyte will step forward with a page number to help us out. Where in Bar by Bar does Brooks first define H1 H2 L1 L2 etc?


    Taylor is actually on my Hall of Fame shelf. His writing sucks, but he defines his terms and is perfectly clear otherwise. On the basis of Taylor, which I have been using for 12 years on a daily basis, I would expect the rally from Friday's lows to continue into Monday. It is not infallible. But as any trader knows, the failures contain valuable information as well.
     
    #170     Apr 29, 2018