Daily charts, get Tradestation or Multicharts and backtest everything. The backtest results are always better than reality but useful.
Saigyou_123, From your studies, what would be two of the most frequently occurring Brooks approved trades?
There are 81bars in RTH. Begin to log bar-by-bar. That will generate a daily record and clarify where your sticking points are. Charting and logging will create the insights you desire. Brooks video series will support your effort. Reading Edwards and Magee can give a good historical snapshot of how markets are changed as well as how they have stayed the same. On ET, Volpri has a good trading journal from a Brooks perspective.
I would say hold off on re-reading the first book until you get through all three. I'm working my way through the series and book 2 is where things have been starting to click more. There is thankfully a lot of concept repetition, and then in book 2 more blanks start to get filled in; it felt like the first portion of book 2 was a good reinforcement of trend concepts in book 1. For what it's worth, I've had the same experience while going through the written work. It's very dense and takes a long time to read through/fully understand. I can only get through about 30 or so pages at a time on a good day. Personally, I've found that it has been worth the effort so far (despite what you see people saying on ET). I'd agree with Sprout on Volpri's journal. I'm still a new trader (been about a year now) but reading through Volpri's journal is what initially got me on a better trading path and interested in Brooks.
Al's scholarship on price development and discovery is substantial but his writing is sub-par and he gets little editorial support form his publisher. The video course is much easier to negotiate if you want to study Al's work. The books make a lot more sense afterwards. But no matter who you study, it's important to spend considerable time simply watching price develop. What is the nature of a trend?, what is the nature of a trading range?, what does a developing wedge look like?, What does a reversal look like. To most amateur "traders" what appears to be a reversal is simple the beginning of a consolidation for the next move up or down. Learn the basics of price development from AL or another quality source and begin to watch. Don't trade at first not even in Sim as you do not want to be emotionally involved with the outcome of any setup.....learn by focus but with detachment from outcome. The fog will lift over time with the considerable effort required but don't be in a hurry. It took most of us a long time for all the pieces to fall into place and for most it never does. There are no easy shortcuts to consistent profitability and most will not do what it takes...technically and/or behaviorally.