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I hope someone picks up this thread and sees this post. I'm unsure how this posting will work out, but I am glad to post for my own and anyone else's benefit.
It seems there are a few key large elements to pick up from the early parts of Al's Trading Course. There are a ton of useful ideas in there, but these three ideas seems to be the most fundamental.
First, is to know the where things are, have been, and where going relative to the market cycle. This means being able to id trends, trading ranges, and pullbacks. Next would be understanding how this three things become one another.
Next is to understand context, i.e. the left side of the chart. Particularly notice pressure, i.e. how bearish are bear bars and how bullish are bull bars?
Lastly, is the H and L bars. I have come to understand it this way: There are at least three bars (I have an inkling this idea can comprise more than two set up or two signal bars, but I'm not sure) that comprise the scenario containing the H or L bar. These bars are the Setup, the Signal, and the Entry (this Entry Bar actually being the H or L) bar.
So when one has a setup as a low bar and a signal as a high bar, the Entry Bar is an H and when the setup is a high bar and the single is a low bar, the Entry Bar is a L. My other question is does one use the bottom of bear bar or the close for the low and does one use the top of the bull bar or the close?
Book is tough to learn from He has awesome course that is more dynamic w colors n great audio. But best for me has been live in his trading room ...we are all great at hindsight but live is Real
Not sure anyone will see this, but here goes.
After going through two of Al Brooks books I find a consistent and strange thing I hope someone can explain.
In the beginning he gives a clear definition of the idea of L2 and H2. But in almost every case when he has a chart where he says a bar is an H2 or L2 it just does not match the definition at all. I am sure I am missing something, but if someone has figured this out please let me know what I am looking at. It is very frustrating.
Here is an example, the image should be attached:
In Trading Price Action Trends...Diagram 12.1
He says in the text, the bar 15 high 2 failed. Bar 15 very clearly does not have a higher high than the bar before it. How is it H2 if it is lower.
That is the mystery for me. Sorry, I had a nice cut and paste ready but this system doesn't let me do it.
I could be wrong but I would say:
- the bar before bar 15 broke the high of the prior bar (after a 1 bear bar pullback) making it a H1.
- bar 15 broke the low of the prior bar making a new low and the second leg of the pullback.
- strictly spoken bar 16 took out the high of bar 15 (after printing a new low on bar 15) making it a H2 but there was no follow through and it failed.
I think one should read the bar 16 H2 failed or maybe he meant the H2 after/at? bar 15.
However, two (small) pullbacks (better visible on a lower time frame like the 1m) and no follow through at the high of the day.
Edit
He writes: "The pattern turned into a second attempt to reverse down at a new high of day. The entry was below the high 2 entry bar THAT FOLLOWED BAR 15" which is bar 16.
Normally this would be a breakout (13-14) pullback (14-16) long continuation but he explains that reliable patterns fail about 40% of the time (as in this case at day high) and often evolve into larger patterns that set up entries in either way.
So this is a failed H2 long entry (on bar 16) that one can short on a break of the low of bar 16.
I agree with that from what I understand of the definition. And if this were just one case I would assume it is a typo of some kind. But really this same thing happens throughout the books and I think in more than half of the times this idea is mentioned. That is why I think I am missing something in the description. It just comes up too many times. I am sure I am just not understanding some simple thing about it. And I do get that a lot of what is discussed is not fully described until later. I think this H2, L2 idea is in the book about ranges. I will keep plugging along and hope it finally becomes clear to me.
A small update since no one with real knowledge answered.
I realized that there is a difference when Brooks just says a bar is a H2 or L2 than when he says it is an H2 or L2 setup.
It is consistent that when he says it is a setup that the next bar is the H2. Same applies for L1, L2 and H1. So it looks to me like he is not saying the bar was an H2 or L2. but meant that it was a setup for one, if it happened. So in a bull trend pullback you look for a low bar because if the next one is higher it is an H1 or H2. I will keep reading and see if this turns out to be correct.
One thing I can say is that the later 3 books from Brooks are easier to follow and understand than the book he first published. Not easy, just clearer. It is still hard to work through. What I found was that the farther you go the more you understand what he is saying. So I think a second read will make it all much clearer. I plan to do that even though it takes a lot of time.
When talking about high 1,2 or low 1,2 he is almost always talking about this in a pullback. I don't remember a time when it was not in a pullback.
So say you have a bull trend. It goes up some bars and then there is a down bar. Pullbacks can be down or sideways. Let's say it is sideways.
What we want to figure out is when to buy back into the bull trend. So in the pullback it goes down a few bars and then has one up that has a high above the bar before it. That is H1. And this is where the first leg is over. If it then goes down again that is leg 2 and when you get the next up bar with a high above the previous bar that is H2. Not all pullbacks have two legs. Some will resume the trend after the H1.
I don't see him drawing trend lines in pullbacks. That is a different thing which he talks about as breakouts or overshoots.
What has been confusing me on this was that he often points to a particular bar and will say it is an H2 setup. It was not a bar higher than the previous one. But now I think he means that it is a setup for an H2 which may happen on the next bar. In the case of the examples in the book it did happen on the next bar.
But H1 is not a high above the previous high in a bull trend. It is in the pullback, or flag. And H2 comes after a second leg of the pullback.
But I am a beginner too and I am hopeful someone who has done this successfully will comment and correct anything I have wrong.