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I've seen people who have done well with Mack. With that said, I would prefer Brooks to Mack also, but then, I can't trade the Brooks way myself, either.
It's what clicks for you. Some methods probably won't work for anyone, but I think that many will work for some traders and not others. What we bring to the party is part of the equation, and a big part sometimes.
Good to hear from you.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
I agree with your comments. Context is key for Al and he uses it to determine the type of trade that's feasible, if any.
It's also true that in his terminology, an Emini swing trade would be completed by the end of a day's session. He's mentioned that when he does take longer term trades he uses options.
I know that several people have mentioned that Mack's PAT is Al Lite. I'm not so sure, from the couple of free videos of Mack I've seen on YouTube, I can't find much that looks like Al's teaching.
I really understand Mack's teachings but I was/am not comfortable with his RR. Sometimes I traded 3 to 1 or more (or less, it is how you see it ;-). And although I believe you can trade his method profitable, it is not me, even if I consider myself as a scalper (i.e. at least 1 to 1 and short -timed positions).
As for the topic: Al Brooks does not share his account statements but what does it matter?
His course is so comprehensive for little money. Even if you master just one setup you can be profitable (on any timeframe).
With every course it is the same. It is YOU that has to check the method, the facts, the work. Check out Pa Dax's work for that matter!
In the end ,it is all about patience and not let your monkeybrain out.
Couldn't agree more with you there @beske. I think that Mack's trading has no merit and certainly shouldn't be considered Price Action trading. His approach makes no sense to me at all and frankly, I don't think it's profitable. I don't want to accuse him of anything so that's all I'm going to say about it.
As for Brooks, fully agree with @beske. If you have a book on how to become a rocket scientist, then not everyone who reads the book will become a rocket scientist. However, all rocket scientists will have read the book. There is no easy way and study material should activate someone to go and study.
I should preface by saying I don't care whether any educator does live trades, or shows their statements. Their trade performance is in no way reflective of mine or anyone elses and completely discounts the psychological factor, so frankly it's irrelevant. If a course teaches me something useful, then it's worth it.
I bought this course purely to learn about market context with the intention of combining it with some other setups. With other educators (Mack included), I always felt blind. They teach setups, and just tell you to wait until you get a good signal, but don't delve deeply into the behaviour of the bulls and bears and how price got there. Thanks to Brooks I can understand how price got there, who's in control and the rough probabilities of a trade. All this gives me much more confidence with trades.
Pros
Very good at teaching market context
Lot's of different setups
Emphasizes probability
Cons
Extremely boring. I've lost count of the number of times I've fallen asleep to the videos.
Way too long, could probably condense the course by two thirds and you'd learn the same amount
Lot's of different setups - If you're prone to overtrading, need to be extremely disciplined to not just trade anything and scale in
Trade examples are lacking
I've had to supplement the course with reading through @Pa Dax journal for trade examples. Found the journal immensely helpful to refine my entries and exits.
for everybody who is searching the truth by asking the statements, etc...
Sorry I'll disappoint you a bit, in such context, there is almost no way to verify it, even if somebody will be OK to provide you the statement....
think about this fairy tale, you're hypothetical vendor and you want to make money on selling books/courses, nothing is stopping you to have 2 accounts in 2 brokers where you do the opposite signals, and if somebody asking you just show statements from the broker which looks good at the moment. In total hypothetical guy gets "zero"(-commissions) by doing this, but he has profitable (or semi profitable) statements. Not sure if this particular things even legal or not, but I guess people who want to fake it hard they will find a way. So please stop searching confirmation. Because you need a real investigation to find out if this is real or not, and if you have such skills maybe trading is a wrong profession for you if you have such skills and so interested in finding the truth
on that note, think about trading related information you're reading/watching as building blocks, which potentially can became one of the block in your personal system, but maybe is totally useless in presented original system. And to be more closer to the subject, there are many building blocks you can find in Brooks materials.
Problem of somebody who just starting and coming from other areas, that there is expectation of STEP-BY-STEP recipe how-to-do-something in specific order and to get something specific as result. And the only problem they see is just to find "that guy" who can provide statement and then they will follow his STEP-BY-STEP path to billions. One day you'll wake up(hopefully), the sooner the better.
That's probably true ASSUMING a statement was actually posted.
When educators do NOT post a statement you at least know for sure they're not making any significant $$$ through their own trading.
If an educator posted a broker statement showing he was profitable he would most certainly 10X his sales. So, why isn't he doing it? I think we know the answer...
I view the whole thing about looking for broker statements to be a mistake.
Suppose you see a statement. What you will see, whether the account and other info is on it or not, is a printed page that (surprise!) will show the vendor did a good job of trading.
In the computer age, how hard is it to simply fake the page of the supposed statement to show whatever they want? Will the broker get online and say, "No, no, that's not the right set of numbers"? Of course not -- they have restrictions on what they can say about their clients, and saying anything about their accounts is not something they will do. Nor will they confirm that the statement is right. They won't say anything at all.
The only person who will say something is the one who is giving you a look at what they say is their statement.
Yet people still complain about statements not being provided. If they are, would you trust them? Why?
You have to use some other way to decide whether someone is giving you something of value. If they showed you a "statement," you should regard it as simply advertising copy.
This is not to criticize any particular vendor, but it is a reminder not to naive with any, either.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
I got halfway through this thread - the focus seemed to be on statements - but wouldn't it just be better to see live trades streamed on a consistent basis? Like say every day for a few weeks or a month? That would be much harder to fake than a statement. And if someone saw that then they would have faith in the ability of a vendor to daytrade
At one point, the cry within the industry became for vendors to provide statements as a way to prove they were truthful. I thought then and I think now that if you take what someone tells you is his statement as evidence that he is not lying to you, you have made an elementary mistake. You are taking the word of someone you don't trust as evidence that they are trustworthy. An odd idea.
I would be happy to take an audited statement, from a national auditing firm, on their letterhead, assuming I could also verify that it actually came from them -- so it could not come directly from the vendor. It's not the same to take an image that the person you are questioning provides you.....
But there are fashions that come and go, and the demand for statements was a big thing at one time. I don't know why. Sometimes people still make it.
As to believing live trading, sure, but this thread is about a trading course, no live trading, just static charts. There is also the simple fact that vendors often get caught streaming sim trades. It is much easier to trade sim than actual live, as traders keep finding out. And by the way, if you are watching a YouTube video that someone recorded, how hard is it for them to be recording in replay, after they know where the market has already gone? Vendors get caught doing this too.
I don't see a solution, other than just putting whatever someone is selling to the test by trading it. This can get very expensive, both in terms of buying the vendors' offerings, and in terms of losses in cases when they don't work out. You can and should check out reviews, but there will often be positive and negative reviews, both convincing. Ultimately it's still the trader's judgment, followed by their experience if they use something.
Trading involves risk. Just be cautious and act judiciously and with care. This includes what you spend your money on for training. (And don't spend much. )
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote