how to understand Al Brooks

wrbtrader · Apr 29, 2018

zenemini said:
...

The big caution would be this: Brooks focuses on the bars, but he is really focused on price action and institutional behavior. This is likely lost to many of his students. He has one video in particular where he discusses how a bar may be a reversal bar, though it does not look like a reversal bar, e.g. a bar may have what he calls a "bear" close and yet be a "buy reversal bar" (though not a "bull reversal bar" <confused yet lol>. He notes that on some "time frame," there is a "bull reversal bar" present at that point. He then shows that to be the case by simply changing the bar interval. But he also cautions students not to go looking for that ideal bar interval, but to learn to recognize the reversal in real time on one's chosen bar chart, which for Brooks appears to be the 5 minute, and trade it...
More...

Are these videos of real time price action as in you can see the price quotes & intervals changing on the charts in the videos or these are videos of static (hindsight charts) as in explanations on video about what has happen in the past ???

My point is that I see a lot of reference to the words "real time" and I was wondering if the videos were of real time price action instead of static charts.

The video I saw was using static (hindsight) charts and I'm curious if there would have been a different learning (improved) if the video was via real time info versus static charts in the video.

wrbtrader

Frederick Foresight · Apr 29, 2018

traderGOD said:
...and after i saw his videos i just trade reversals.....so you get in much earlier then the pull backs
More...

Since you credit Brooks with your success, could you give us an idea of how well you are doing now, and how poorly you were doing before you discovered his videos? Be as vague or as specific as you like, but just give us an idea of the progress that you attribute directly to him, and kindly identify the other available resources (books, courses, etc.) that did not help you.

Frederick Foresight · Apr 29, 2018

wrbtrader said:
The video I saw was using static (hindsight) charts and I'm curious if there would have been a different learning (improved) if the video was via real time info versus static charts in the video.
More...

Perhaps you should subscribe to his live chat room service for a month or so and report back to us.

If that suggestion does not appeal to you, then this is my appeal to the Brooks devotees among us: tell us how awesome his real time chat room subscription is. If he has such a following here at ET, surely someone here has subscribed to the service and can share his awe with the rest of us.

wrbtrader · Apr 29, 2018

Frederick Foresight said:
Perhaps you should subscribe to his live chat room service for a month or so and report back to us.

If that suggestion does not appeal to you, then this is my appeal to the Brooks devotees among us: tell us how awesome his real time chat room subscription is. If he has such a following here at ET, surely someone here has subscribed to the service and can share his awe with the rest of us.
More...

I remember watching a video in rehab during some tests.

You suggesting I go through that experience again although a text chat room would be easier to tolerate than the video (audio)...the voice.

I've seen my own test results when learning from videos, audio and texts during the rehab...scary differences. It makes me think I can't be alone in being able to comprehend something one way to produce a set of results in comparison to a comprehend the same info via different way...producing different test results.

Further, I don't believe we should all experience a psycho-therapist to understand how we comprehend info differently in comparison to another trader or even in comparison to a different way of learning the info as in video versus audio vs text.

That's why I mentioned in an earlier message post...I've had classes in college where some students aced (A) the class. A few got perfect scores. Others got average grades (B or C) and others failed (D or F)...all taking the same topic and using the same professor (teacher).

Simply, its obvious that "learning" involves much more than the student & professor considering such a diversity in the grades. Those that fail obviously were the ones that complain the most.

I remember failing (F) two particular classes. Re-took the same classes in the next semester and aced them (A). Is this more about me or about the education or about the teacher ???

wrbtrader

Frederick Foresight · Apr 29, 2018

zenemini said:
I will also say this: I trade two main set-ups - one is a retracement in a trend, the other is a reversal. I do rather well, if I do say so myself, with those two set-ups, with a few additional refinements and flourishes, of course, as a result of experience and testing. He covers both of those. So right there, a perceptive student who is patient enough to wait for these set-ups could put together a trading plan, and, presumably, do quite well.
More...

Okay, that's fair. But retracements and reversals are fairly generic and are covered in most trading-related books that go into any specifics. It is the "additional refinements and flourishes" that make it your own and that form part of a comprehensive trading plan. So, apart from equivocation and obfuscation, what does Brooks bring to the table, in general terms, that any other of a long line of coherently written trading books do not? Serious question.

wrbtrader · Apr 29, 2018

This reminds me of another Brooks thread in which someone said Brooks doesn't define a "double bottom". In fact, he suggested Brooks should put a glossary of definitions in the book (front or back) so that the reader doesn't need to search the internet for explanations.

Yet, he stated he easily understood the video explanation by someone else using Brooks.

Implying he has an issue with Brooks way of explaining but not an issue with the information when explained by others. Maybe that's why the OP of this thread was suggesting not to use the books but use the videos ???

wrbtrader

volpri · Apr 29, 2018

zenemini said:
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.
More...

zenemini said:
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.
More...

Chapter 4 on Pullbacks. The complete definition is in a section of that chapter in big bold black print on page 118.

volpri · Apr 29, 2018

zenemini said:
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.
More...

You must not have looked too high or low for the definitions. In addition to the definitions being in Chapter 4, there is also a glossary at the back of the book page 389 gives the clear definition of H1, H2, H3, and H4. Page 390 gives the clear definition of L1, L2, L3, L4.

Am I still an immature little douche?

ROFLMAO

wrbtrader · Apr 29, 2018

volpri said:
You must not have looked too high or low for the definitions. In addition to the definitions being in Chapter 4, there is also a glossary at the back of the book page 389 gives the clear definition of H1, H2, H3, and H4. Page 390 gives the clear definition of L1, L2, L3, L4.

Am I still an immature little douche?

ROFLMAO
More...

Maybe you guys are not talking about the same book ???

wrbtrader

SkyChef · Apr 29, 2018

volpri said:
You must not have looked too high or low for the definitions. In addition to the definitions being in Chapter 4, there is also a glossary at the back of the book page 389 gives the clear definition of H1, H2, H3, and H4. Page 390 gives the clear definition of L1, L2, L3, L4.

Am I still an immature little douche?

ROFLMAO
More...

He didn't even read passed page 22. Chapter 4.

PS: I coded his H1, H2 etc for my usage & I'd looked many open source software to see how people coded. The Ninja Trader code doesn't even come close.