how to understand Al Brooks

truetype · Apr 24, 2018

truetype said:
Is there a single institutional trader anywhere who's on record as a "Brooks enthusiast"?
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Xela said:
from your perspective the answer's probably "no"
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Thanks, that's what I figured.

digitalnomad · Apr 24, 2018

truetype said:
Is there a single institutional trader anywhere who's on record as a "Brooks enthusiast"?
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Too funny. If Brooks helps people come up with ideas, it’s all good, but they better work out the math and coding required to test the viability and execution, else they’ll end up spinning their wheels forever. Same goes for any price action education.

RRY16 · Apr 24, 2018

Xela said:
I suspect that may depend on exactly what you mean by "on record".

If you mean named individuals with independently verifiable identities and trading records visible online, then the answer's "I don't know" ... but I'd suggest to you that their NDA's might preclude that from happening (as indeed my own would) - and I'd further suggest that you probably know this, too, really.

If you accept less formal criteria for being "on record", then the answer's certainly and clearly "yes", and many of them.

Since posting a little here, myself, intermittently, about Al Brooks, in other people's threads, over the last year or two, I've been contacted on at least three occasions (I think possibly four) by private message/thread by other institutional traders who are now-non-posting members here (for various different reasons), all of them sharing my perspectives and experiences of this subject and some of them warning me about the extraordinary prejudices and misinformation on display here about Al; I've had some very interesting conversations with many colleagues as a result, and I've even made at least a couple of interesting and welcome online friends/contacts because of it.

There are also many (I think some of them even with full names, and possibly "verifiable" if you can be bothered to) in the futures.io forum. And probably elsewhere, too.

But if all that doesn't satisfy you, then from your perspective the answer's probably "no".

I don't care much, either way, myself: at the end of the day, it doesn't really affect me what people say about his textbooks and teaching - my perspective is that no matter how anyone else maligns him, and no matter for what reasons, I'm one of the evidently substantial group of people who fortunately don't have to pay back to anyone the money we've made (originally, in my case, directly for my own accounts, and more recently indirectly in the form of the acquired skill-set that produces my salary and bonuses for trading OPM) by following his teaching.

I'll add that I think it's quite a good and healthy thing, in principle, in this industry, to have some skepticism about "vendors", and Al Brooks is now technically a "vendor", as well as a trader ... though obviously there's a world of difference between having written 3 or 4 textbooks which Wiley has published at about $50 each and is probably paying him a 12.5% royalty on the sales, and being a hype-driven, self-promoting con-man hard-selling trading courses for $3,000 or $5,000 or whatever image people conjure up when they think of "trading service vendors". For a wide range of reasons, in all subjects, some people write textbooks (fortunately for people like me, who needed to study them to be able to make a living). To me it seems self-evident that Al Brooks' teaching isn't anyone's "primary income". But that's just my perspective, as the saying goes.
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I got to say you’re giving Handle123 a real run for his money. Props to you!

comagnum · Apr 24, 2018

learner88 said:
For long-term traders, is Al Brooks' teachings relevant?
You mention Al Brooks focuses mainly on higher time frames. Seems like he looks at 5-minute charts. I wonder if long-term traders can learn useful things from Al Brooks that can be applied to long-term trading.
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I actually said this "Hmm - he does not look at higher time frames" Not a very bright idea - except for maybe a DOM trader.

I see absolutely nothing a long term, or any trader for that matter can get out of Al Brooks - one reason of many: this Charlatan claims there is no risk in day trading & advocates piling into 100 ES contracts since you could make a $1,00,000. This is highly flawed get rich quick, bet the farm on one trade.

I strongly recommend burning everything Al Brooks with extreme prejudice, since you asked.

padutrader · Apr 24, 2018

SimpleMeLike said:
traderGOD,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I have highly considered purchasing an reading Al Brooks Price Action books for reading to enhance and build my price action skills.

Few questions:

1. What is the major difference between reading the Al Brooks books and watching his videos that lead you to better trading?

2. Do you feel your price acting skills was all learned from Al Brooks teaching? Or did you have to see other training or studying?

Thanks
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they say a picture is worth a thousand words and instead of buying his books, i recommend buying his video course or just seeing some of his videos on you tube: here a few i found really good; his thinking is totally out of the box and is very logical and simple.
to answer your question 1 i have found videos a lot easier to understand and a lot of less effort! i fell it is easier to see news on tv than read it in the paper.
i have been reading his books since ten years but i just could find any actionable strategies though there is a wealth of information.I feel i have learned all from Al though i have a vast knowledge about technical analysis having read my first book in 1994; i really love his out of the box thinking.nothing wrong with all the other technical analysis methods ....

thanks for interacting with me;trading is a lonely activity and i have only one trader friend in the real world.
let me know if you need anything; i started buying stocks in 1994 before internet trading so i can give advice. i live in India.
keep in touch

padutrader · Apr 24, 2018

Xela said:
Not so at all, actually - the key difference being that homeopathy is a load of old bunkum which has never had any scientific (or even statistically valid anecdotal) evidence for it at all, whereas in the case of Al Brooks' teaching, trading forums are teeming with people - like myself - who have been trading professionally for many years, all saying openly that we probably wouldn't be making a living at all without having studied it at great length and in great detail (and heaven knows there's no other productive way to study it).

This is a hugely controversial subject in forums, partly because of the prevalence of the people who have struggled for a very long time with his books and eventually abandoned them (understandably - I was nearly one of them, myself, but the strength of the recommendations I'd had, from people I knew were making a living by following them, made me super-persistent, which most people really have to be, with them. I used to think the problem was with me, because English isn't my first language and I didn't speak, or even read, it then nearly as fluently then as I do now, but I was probably wrong to imagine that, given how many native English-speakers apparently have exactly the same problems reading them that I also had).

The video-course didn't exist, when I started.

Although much of the content of the books is absolutely brilliant, and amazingly helpful, they're really not particularly well-written, and they're terribly badly and unprofessionally edited (and his publishers should be ashamed of themselves). Let's just say that as writers go, the good Dr. Brooks is a great eye-surgeon.

However, it really is worth persisting with them - as attested to by so many members here and elsewhere. It's a real learning-curve, but ultimately - for so many of us - a very profitable, productive and worthwhile one.

That's certainly a very common (and completely understandable) experience.
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The videos course did not exist when i read his book also but sticking to Him eventually reaped dividends.

thanks for your insights.

trading is hugely difficult but the rewards for success are in line with the tremendous commitment needed to excel

padutrader · Apr 24, 2018

Xela said:
I hear you - and fair enough (you're not alone there, of course).

I think it says that he's a much better trader than he is a writer, and that he both needed and deserved better from his publishers (who do actually have a respected editorial department, on this subject, though you'd never know it from Al's books!) than he got.
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You have a great woman's insight-sorry for the sexist comment- and you have echoed my views exactly: he is a terrible teacher and writer.
but he has got better with time which I why i recommend his videos: you can get plenty free if you search you tube at no cost. i have posted a few links which should serve as an appetizer.
THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING AND SHARING YOUR INSIGHTS

padutrader · Apr 24, 2018

Frederick Foresight said:
Well, from my exposure to the first hundred or so pages of his first book, I did not get the impression that he had clarity of thought. He was unfocused and all over the place. So I think it has to do with his mental processes as well as his writing style. His stream of consciousness style of writing would suggest that he was a fan of James Joyce.

If you your trading has benefited, then I have to wonder how much of was due to the content of his book(s), and how much is the result of your Trojan persistence to succeed at whatever it is you set out to do.
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i like your question but there can be no doubt that you cannot succeed at trading unless you have bull dog persistence.
to answer your question i feel it was all due to,not to the content of his books,but to the content of his videos

padutrader · Apr 24, 2018

Frederick Foresight said:
Maybe so, but I found Brooks's narrative too slippery for my taste. And homeopathy comparison aside (which I thought was a good joke in the context of the OP's comment about not reading his books), I still stand by my second post in this thread.

As it has been said before by people far more perceptive than I am: "Any damn fool can make it complex, but it takes a genius to make it simple." What does that say about the good doctor?
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The doctor is a genius.......but geniuses make bad teachers

padutrader · Apr 24, 2018

truetype said:
Does he have any published track record, or even just market calls?
Outside of the fantasy world of ET, no one gets every call right. But I'd sure take 63% correct!
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you can subscribe to his chat room if you want evidence...
my trading eventually improved by following his methods....