Really? I thought it was paying money so you are committed to being more serious about learning. Akin to a Gym membership. But seriously, I think it depends on where you are at. If you have not been around the block 50 times, then yes. But there is a point of diminishing returns reviewing past action. And I would speculate it could actually be a negative if you are missing the real time ability to make actual trades. Being able to see it in real time without even a hint of what is going to happen is the skill you want, imho. For instance reviewing today, you know it was an inside day all the way to the end, so none of those long wicks resulted in a hell for bent break out. But in real time, you did not know that. So if it did happen, how would you know it was not a fake out? I want the ability to deal with that situation.* All that being said, reviews are good. But some people need real time skills to progress. It would be interesting to see a room that does options in real time. *Of course they could have gone over all that in the after action review, in which case it could be useful, but still not like live trading.
If "fake out" is a concept you use in your analysis you should tighten up your analysis. I've been around the block more than 50 times and my day starts with a morning prep reviewing not only the overnight trade but the daily, 4 hour, and 1 hour bar interval charts as well. The end of day is review of my audit trail and the RTH five minute chart. https://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/inside-the-game-how-players-do-film-study-20309663 Quarterback Nick Foles shakes his head at his NovaCare Complex locker, counting the hours silently in his brain. He's been asked to guess how many hours each week he spends watching film, and it's very difficult to come up with anything close to an exact answer. "There's a lot of it, of course," he said. "Every morning, we meet early and go to our quarterbacks room and that's what we do. We watch film. We look for things. And then we have meetings when we aren't practicing and we watch more. "It's a lot, I know that. It takes up so much of the day. At night, I can't do it. My brain just doesn't work that way at night." As blessed as these elite athletes are with their physical gifts, the mental side of the game is often what separates those who make it from those who don't. Film study is a must. Being good at it and knowing what you're looking at it is essential. It's not a lot of fun, but it's part of the everyday routine.
That’s not fair. People who are learning do not have the knowledge/experience to make their own decisions. If they did, they would not need to be in the room. When I am in a room, I want to see how experienced trader makes real time decisions based on the current context. Anyone can play Monday-Morning-Quaterback. Yes, there’s educational value in that, but not as much. I also agree that initially the subscriber should be able to shadow trade the trader and see positive results, even if on sim. Builds confidence. Once one gets the knowledge/experience to make own decisions, there’s still lots of value in comparing one’s performance to the trader.
I understand your pov. However logical your perspective might be, in a ligitation based culture it seems like a lot of liability to take on for not that much reward.
I know there are LEGAL reasons Al cannot tell the room, "I am taking this/or that trade", (follow or not follow him does not matter). He is not a registered investment advisor, nor he wants legal problems from losers. I know that! Still being in a room for 3-months, I have many times faded his insight and I was right! When he is saying, I would not take this trade because of the "math is bad", many times, damn the math, I take it with a stop loss and it worked out. I am not lazy or trying to get rich quick, that is bullshit, just at this point, I have no use of other's opinion clouding mine, especially if the trades are not given out for me to see. If anything Al's room is to teach you to be very selective of your setups. That is a good lesson he taught me. Since I do not trade ES, the room is no use to me.
Actually, this is a good question - are there really legal consequences in calling out own trades? I am not aware of any such rules imposed by regulations. Claiming unsubstantiated performance is against the rules. But if you can show regulators proof of claimed performance, you should be ok. That is my understanding. Obviously, anyone can start a lawsuit, but that is small risk when collecting monthly fees from thousands of subscribers.
Al is very big on technical analysis, price action whatever you want to call it.. He is very small on actual trading.
That is the mystery. He would never tell us any numbers, only "I had a decent day", now that is very subjective...I give him the benefit of the doubt, but I have seen him staying flat countless times while the market moved 30+ points. Always had some excuse... As to giving trading advice, you must be a registered investment advisor for equities, I am not sure if that is applied to ES...