A man devotes his life to trying to help his brethren and all he gets is this kind of bashing. Next thing you'll say is Hershey isn't a saint.
The guy is prolific. I mentioned earlier that there are plenty of his stuff available for free. On Youtube, he has 89 videos posted, average is about 10 minutes, so that is almost 15 hours for free. http://www.youtube.com/user/BrooksPriceAction?feature=watch He has at least one 2+ hours webinar on BMT. So there is no need to pay even $250, any interested party should check out the videos and webinars, THEN spend money on the 25 hours marathon... Of course by then one should know pretty much everything about bars and whatthehellheistalkingabout.... Here is a 3 stars review of his book from Amazon: "I am about 150 pages into the book so far as of 2012-03-10 and after getting used to my eyes bleeding in the first 70 pages I am finally starting to settle into his writing style. Believe me, if I knew of any other competent book on the subject of trading price action, I would not have continued to muddle through this one. If you have ever heard one of Al Brook's webinars like those posted at Big Mike Trading, you will see that he has managed to perfectly capture all of the boredom and monotone of his voice in print form."
English is my second language but I do know if I did or if I did not say that "trading is an occasional thing". In fact, I said the person (NoDoji) posted an occasional broker statement. Thus, I did not say that NoDoji is trading occasional or doing occasional trading. Now that's cleared up. Most traders are part-timers or hobby traders and there was a poll once here at ET where such was validated. Simply, it would seem that most traders, at least here at ET, have admitted to basically being occasional traders to determine if this was something worthwhile pursuing full-time or seriously.
You failed while a few did not...that's trading. Most will not be profitable while a few will. It's that failure to understand, failure to be profitable when you know there are traders out there that are succeeding regardless to the method being used. That's life and the fact that most business owners will fail while a few will not is proof. I have a friend that's starting his 3rd restaurant in 12 years. The other two didn't make it. What keeps him going at it? There are two very successful restaurants within 5 minutes driving distance from his home. Those restaurants have been around for +20 years (family owned). He sees that every day and its what convinces him he can do it too. Thus, its not an illusion about the success of others. The real illusion is his own abilities to properly run a restaurant business. Traders are no different animal. As long as you see someone else that's profitable, there will be that urge to keep trying. I don't know if Brooks is profitable or not in his trading. Yet, I have seen "a few" traders using his concepts from his method (not as originally designed by Brooks) profitably based upon real-time trades and some broker statements and I have seen others fail too. Will they all continue succeeding or failing into next year, next 10 years...I don't know. Yet, I do know this fact...you're just not getting it via your own admission and you should go back to the self taught route until you get it or go bust (seriously). That way the next time you look in the mirror...there's nobody else there except you. Hopefully the next thread you start is about you as a trader of the self-route.
Funny enough I did a survey a few years back which suggested about 70% of ET members used TA and the same percentage were day traders. Mind you that was before a determined effort by a few members to invade and wreck any thread that espoused TA while endlessly crusading against TA in their own threads. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a connection with the reduced posting rate on ET and making ET an unpleasant forum for TA traders. Glad to see things are improving. Re. Al, my knowledge only relates to 15mins on a webinar and he put me to sleep, which is quite a feat as I'm an insomniac. He reminds me of my old history teacher who had a wonderful sleep inducing monotone droll. I complained about his ability to communicate to other staff members who gave me surprised looks and told me of his long list of qualifications. Perhaps Al's a reincarnation of my history teacher? He might be a genius, but he make learning painful. Perhaps one day I'll get round to giving Al an undivided 60 mins with electric probes in sensitive areas programmed to give me a prod should I succumb to nodding off.
Thats another problem. I don't know any actual traders. I know of internet success's, the land of make believe. But I don't know any living breathing, i can reach out and touch, actual traders. Yes, I see successful food establishments all around me so i know if i tried to open one and failed, im just not good enough. But traders at home making a killing trading futures? I dont know any, so no, i cannot say its just me. There was a thread that was deleted that showed Al brooks home/office/company address and it was worth about 200 grand. My plumber lives in a more expensive home. Yeah, i know, many millionaires live modestly, but again, no evidence of success. http://www.corporationwiki.com/Cali...bble-Creek-Dr-Rocklin-CA-95765-a41490890.aspx
Huh? Why perpetuate a myth? Nodoji has never posted any type of broker statement nor have any of the other imaginary TA chart readers/price action deluded. Please show me I'm wrong. surf
True dat. Forget all gurus, evengelists, preachers, pied pipers. You may wish to read a few books, listen to what is said - but be a follower/adherent of another man?? No way!!! Trading is like an art, very individual, one must create their own masterpiece. I've been in this game well over 20 years, 99.9% of what I read nowadays goes in one ear and out the other, it doesn't fit my style. I've never been a follower other than in my early days which resulted in me being a clone of failure. There's a downside to this, (not a disciple) it's difficult to relate to other traders because you beome a lone hunter in the wilderness.
The reason why you don't know any traders in person is maybe you have not made an effort to meet any real traders in your area. You do know ET has a "Hook Up" thread for you to meet other traders "in person" in your area. Also, you can meet traders in your area based on other criteria (e.g. type of trading platform being used, type of charting program being used and so on). For example, the first group of traders I met in person was via joining an "easylanguage tradestation group" in the city I lived in back when TradeStation was known as Omega Research. There was 15 of us...meetings once a month. Also, your mentioning of phrases like "traders at home making a killing" is a further indication that you may have "unrealistic goals" considering newbie traders aren't making a killing or you're thinking about one of those Dukascopy audited traders making millions while ignoring the fact that they are well capitalized and tons of years of trading experience. As to Al's home or office address thread. I remember that thread well and it was pointed out in that thread its not uncommon for "self-employed" to do such. For example, I know an architect in the Seattle area with his business address in a house worth about 300k but he doesn't live in the house. It's his business address. In contrast, he lives in a 800k luxury condo about 15 minutes driving distance from his home office. My point, you have unrealistic goals an expectations and your quest for evidence seems to have gotten you stuck inside the box. For example, lets pretend Mr. Brooks lives in a trailer park in a 30k rental home. Yet, one of his former students lives in an upscale suburban house worth 1.2 million dollars. Based upon your observation skills, Mr. Brooks must be a good (but poor) teacher considering one of his own students is now doing very well and making a killing in the markets. In reality, the student may be losing and married to a rich women that supplements the students dream. My point, you really don't know anything about anybody based upon what house they live and using such as a measurement gets back to the typical newbie expectations. Therefore, if you're the type that prefers to use a house they own, a car they own, school their kids went too, looks of the wife, restaurants he eats at as a measurement tool for his abilities...good luck with that. To cement my point. My best friend lives in a 250k house in a modest Indiana neighborhood. She's 48 years old, never married, never will be via choice, always been single except for a few boyfriends, adopted 2 young kids...travels the world in the summer with them. Yet, she's a multimillionaire living comfortably off her inheritance. In contrast, she has 3 siblings via similar like inheritance living like millionaires in million dollar mansions in upscale neighborhoods...one sibling in particular resides at a Vale ski resort, kids went to expensive schools and currently her husband is unemployed and has been such for the past 4 years. Based upon your observations, that unemployed guy living in that million dollar home at Vale ski resort must be a successful business guy until you get to know him personally...finding out he's unemployed and married to a millionaire.
one of my relatives is worth millions and lives in a dumpy house so trust me, i know about that. all i'm saying is i see no success, i know of no success and i have no evidence of success other than stories online. again, the land of make believe. back to your restaurant analogy. i see success all around me, its everywhere, there are hundreds of them all around me. traders? i hear crickets. even al brooks cannot provide me with any evidence of success. none, zero, zilch, nothing. why would an educator do that to his poor students? why not put them at ease and show a quarterly or yearly audited statement to say, ok i want to put your mind at ease in regards to that? tell me, why not? if i were a superstar trader and i got into teaching, the first thing i would do is have a couple years of audited, certified by an outside party, statements to show my students im not fooling them. and by doing that, think about how much more business i would get? its a win, win. student see's proof and his happy, teacher gets a ton of business because he shows he is legit. period. ok having said that, as im typing this, now im absolutely positive that brooks does not make much trading. because if something doesnt make sense, its because its not true.