Brooks talks a lot about context...what does that really mean. in trading you have to know the trend...... the trend is your friend but you also have to know how strong that friendship is.. how strong is that trend. that should be the first thing a trader should try to learn, how strong is the trend , because upon that information depends what set ups you are going to take. the trader should be able to measure the strength of the trend, or he will find it difficult to mange his trading: " if you cannot measure it, you cannot mange it " -Seykota this is the context that Brooks talks about. but true to Brooks he does not explain it. if the trend is weak you can take both the bull and bear set ups........if it is not you need to only take with trend set ups. the novice trader believes he can make profitable trades with set ups alone......no wonder 95% of novice traders lose money in the long run. strong trends occur perhaps 10% of the time. that figure may not be exactly correct...but there can be no doubt that strong trends occur less that the [ variety of ] weaker trends and so trading set ups without considering context, will lose more times than not......keeping tight stops is one cure..... but reading context accurately is the prevention i have read books since 1994 and there is no one who stresses on this.......if you do not, or cannot, read just how strong the trend is it is better you do trade at all
I have read tons of trading books. I have also literally burnt tons of trading books and decontaminate my mind from all the wrong teachings. Fortunately, I don't have to read any more trading books. No comment about Brook's book as I didn't read it. Happy reading.
i have found it is better to trade as if the trend will continue until there is a great deal of evidence that it has reversed ....this is what Brooks says very emphatically. this makes sense since i have seen it takes a long time to reverse and there are many false reversals so how do we strategy this?.......in a trend after 3-4 reversal failures [ pull backs that do not fail meaning that continue the trend ] stop trading with trend and start to look for with trend moves that are weak or or break highs with low momentum..... sounds easy..and basic......but it took me a long time....i am dimwitted: i forget who told me that......
That was me. Here is a good example of why I conclude that you aren't so bright when it comes to trading in general, and Brooks's material in particular: Brooks is very clear: Context refers to where the market is in its cycle: Breakout ... Channel ... Trading range ... then a new breakout resets the cycle. You are dimwitted because after 12 years of reading Brooks you miss the key to it all lol ... "Context," for Brooks, is not "strength of trend." Context is the market cycle. During breakouts, trade in the direction of the breakout - 90/10 in the direction of the breakout. During the channel phase, odds favor trades in the direction of the trend, but adept counter-trend traders (who have the capital to scale-in) can make money. If you do not have the capital to scale in, then only trade in the direction of the trend during channels. During trading ranges, both bulls and bears can make money so long as they "buy low, sell high, scalp." That is Brooks in a nut shell. Very clear, and if you learn to recognize where price is in the market cycle, then making money becomes easy. Very, very, easy. Your thread is not a tribute to Brooks. It is a testament to the high failure rate of retail traders. It seems to me that you have never actually read Brooks. Picking a random page here and there is not "reading a book." Start at page 1, and read the entire book through tot thend. But do not forget to think along the way.
i started using his inside bar set up and then realised what a fool i was to have avoided that......he is truly a genius