Whoa whoa, wait, stop the press. I just want to make sure I read that right. you've known al for years and have traded with him and you "believe" he's a profitable trader. I would have expected an unmistakable yes he is amazingly profitable comment. Trading for 30 years claims to go many many many many many days without losing trade. Yeah he better be maxing at minimum 50 es contracts the way he talks..
I've never seen any other traders financials and have no interest in any but my own. I benefited from his work and his friendship. If someone needs to see a P&L to establish credibility then that's their choice. He can be Paul Tudor Jones but if you don't put in the considerable technical and personal effort, it won't do you any good.
In fairness I can't think of any other profession on the planet where the trainer hasn't verifiably demonstrated the ability to actually do what they teach
Trust me. If they were impressive he would most likely not be an educator, but if so, he would flaunt them. Logical, isn’t it?
He does flaunt his calls all the time so that should translate over to flaunting his wealth from trading also but he doesn't. I don't believe he ever mentioned about how many contracts he trades on a full position. After this many years of teaching you would think it would have came up, lol
To that point, he did mention how he sold his eye practice in the 80's for 7 figures. So clearly he has no problem talking about his finances, but not as it relates to trading? Sorry, but that just aint right.
Successful Trading can been seen as a four pronged approach to the markets. 1) Learning concepts and ideas (Orthodoxy) 2) Practicing those concepts and ideas (Orthopraxy) 3) Proper psychological preparation 4) Appropriate performance and execution. Lets’s examine prong 1: Part A prong 1 Repetition is a key learning aid because it helps transition a skill from the conscious to the subconscious. Through repetition, a skill is practiced and rehearsed over time and gradually becomes easier. ... Another important factor in learning is the ability to make connections to previously learned knowledge. (source AplNext.com) Repetition is an important literary device because it allows a writer or speaker to place emphasis on things they choose as significant. It tells the reader or audience that the words being used are central enough to be repeated, and lets them know when to pay special attention to the language. (Source: Literary terms) Repetition works well because it helps your brain solidify connections that are used to recall memories. When you learn something new, your brain instantly attempts to associate it with something that you already know through a process of assimilation. (Source: noocube.com) First, you needed to learn the essential skills. ... It's good because repetitionprovides the practice that children need to master new skills. Repetitionhelps to improve speed, increases confidence, and strengthens the connections in the brain that help children learn. (Source readingbrightstart.org) Repetition is the mother of all learning. ... Learning is simple when you repeat. So don't tell yourself that you can't learn a new language, and don't blame it on your old brain. You can, and science keeps finding evidence saying that your brain can too. (Source: brainscape.com) Words and thoughts that are repeated often get stronger by the repetitions, sink into the subconscious mind and affect the behavior, actions and reactions of the person involved. ... If you consciously choose the thoughts, phrases and words that you repeat in your mind, your life will start to change. (Source: successconciousness.com) It strengthens and consolidates memories of things it encounters regularly and frequently. So spaced repetition – revisiting information regularly at set intervals over time – makes a lot of sense. Spaced repetition is simple, but highly effective because it deliberately hacks the way your brain works. (Source:theguardian.com) One of the biggest mistakes a teacher can make is to forego the return or repetition. The learning process is one of slow engagement with ideas; gradually the ...(Source:etbn.org.uk) Hence Brooks use of repetition. I would imagine. Part B prong 1 “Learning that’s easy is like writing in sand, here today and gone tomorrow.” Rereading is usually cognitively easy. Highlighting key terms/concepts is cognitively easy. These practices repeated several times are not very efficient or effective for increasing retention of material. Instead, students should create a much healthier habit of studying using retrieval practice. This learning strategy is much more cognitively effortful. Quizzing/testing/assessing one’s knowledge via answering recognition or recall questions, for example, is more difficult than simply rereading notes. A plethora of studies have shown evidence that this increased cognitive effort led to greater gains in retention of material long-term. (Source:theeffortfuleducator.com) Have I volpri repeated enough the importance of repetition? However, that in itself while an important part of the learning process is still not enough. You need to combine it with RETRIEVAL PRACTICE. FOR DEEP LEARNING. That is, invent and use recognition techniques or recall questions that require mental effort. However, Repetition and Deep learning are still not enough. Together those two create the orthodoxy leg of learning. That is, the learning of correct ideas and concepts. They are the first step in skill development. Prong 2 The second and necessary step of skill development is orthopraxy. That is, correct practice. However, you need orthodoxy to be able to orthopraxy. You have to know “what” to practice. Brooks gives, IMO, all the orthodoxy that a trader needs to trade successfully. His training is the most comprehensive and detailed treatment of price action that I know of. Sadly, most traders will never expend the effort to complete the orthodoxy leg or prong of trading presented by Brooks in his videos and books. They don’t like the repetition. They don’t like the detailed analysis. They won’t do the deep learning. Therefore, they never give themselves a chance to learn price action trading orthodoxy, Brooks style. They give up and declare it incomprehensible, double talk, or mumbo jumbo or something of that nature. The real problem is they are mentally lazy. If you want to find the gold nuggets you have to expend the effort and dig for them. Brooks is not going to cater to mental laziness and that is a good thing IMO. Orthopraxy (correct practice of correct concepts) comes after a trader has orthodoxied the Brooks concepts (so to speak). A live trading Simulator facilitates the orthopraxy leg or prong of skill development. Nowadays there exist no excuse to not practice until a skill is learned, and becomes second nature, and to do so without monetary risk, whatsoever. If a trader does not orthopraxy then it is just plain being lazy. Prong 3 There is a third leg or prong to skill development when learning and practicing trading Brooks, or any other methodolgy, for that matter. That third leg is the psychological or mental aspect of it. A trader can have orthodoxy, orthopraxis, and still fail and lose their savings. A trader can know what to do and how to do it and when to do it and cannot psychologically do it. That failure comes to light qlaringly when a real account with real money is traded. So, some learning and practice in the psychological aspect or third leg/third step in trading is imperative. Lack of psychological preparation is probably the single biggest failure in the trading world and without doubt the undoing of most traders. The good news is to some degree (though not 100%) a trader can learn and practice the psychological aspect on a SIM thus training himself for real money trading. Like an airline pilot that is trained on a sim and learns how to respond and execute, in a myriad of circumstances. I have heard (not sure if it is true) that when an airplane transport pilot actually flies the jet for the first time it is with passengers on board. I know when I took private pilot training that the first time I crawled in the pilots seat the instructor had me fly the plane. Taking off was easy. Flying was relatively easy. Landing was a booger though. I needed more orthopraxy to land successfully. The orthodoxy in flight ground school was not enough..LOL Prong 4 Correct performance/execution is what is going to make a trader consistently profitable. Which by default is our goal. We know we can’t win every time, nor make money on every trade, but we must train ourselves to win enough times, and big enough, to offset any losses when we do experience them. And to still stay ahead money wise. Said in simple terms, our win rate and average win, should, ideally, be greater than our losing rate and average loss. Trading is one of the highest performance activities that a human can engage in. It requires an incredible amount of learning, practice, mental strength, and execution than most other activities, as the variables are many and can be huge. It takes a myriad of procedures and tactics, executed properly and at the right time, to be successful trading, in any conditions. Like flying in the fog. Flying in the rain. Flying in strong wind conditions. Flying in mountainous conditions. There are many procedures to learn IF you want to trade the markets in “any conditions.” Now if you are satisfied watching a computer for a single setup all day then that is your prerogative. I personally, had rather learn how to trade in all market conditions, make my money fast and go on to living life doing other things...like fishing and traveling. I train myself to trade all market conditions. When I finally crawl my carcass out of bed it is usually after the market open (because of some health issues not laziness), and I crank up the laptop, launch my trading platform, it takes me about 5 minutes to get an overnight view of what the markets did and the more immediate view since the open. Then I am ready to look for trading opportunities. I don’t have to spent hours in preparation and research before the open. I don’t care one iota about the news. The chart tells me all I need to know. So stay awake as you learn Brook’s orthodoxy! Lol “You snooze you lose”