Rob Smith In The Black

jccjccm 

Rob Smith In The Black

There is a channel called The Strat on facebook where some of his group and sometimes himself also post.

jccjccm 

Rob Smith In The Black

My personal impression was Rob presented a simplified subset of principles from Al Brooks' books. This is only my personal opinion. There is a Steve Burns article frequently referenced here. There is also a YouTube video which should provide a good indication of his overall personality.

As an interesting aside, Rob was formally associated with T3 Trading Group who offered his daily "room" and course as one of their T3 Live subscription services. He surprised many by suddenly moving to TickerTocker. T3 claimed they had no advance notice and learned of his departure via public tweet. I have no insight into the behind the scenes issues.

This is a good thread with discussion on #thestrat:

Tao te Trade: way of the WLD Hey guys. I've been back and fourth on the idea of a new journal thread for a long time. I've decided to move forward, so here it is. So I want to start with a description of what I'm trying to do and why. First, I guess, is the who of …

I have studied #thestrat for more than a year. It is an excellent foundation for price action and an absolute must study. However, Rob makes it seem like its the holy grail when its not even close to that. His youtube videos are all in hindsight so they are good for the basics and for reviewing what has happened for context...but they are not videos of an actual trader taking real trades. It isn't possible to trade like that in real-time because in real-time you'll have a million signals trigger and you will need to figure out which ones actually lead to continuation versus which ones just chop back and reverse on you. Hope that has been helpful and made sense.

terminator8 

This is a good thread with discussion on #thestrat: Tao te Trade: way of the WLD Hey guys. I've been back and fourth on the idea of a new journal thread for a long time. I've decided to move forward, so here it is. So I want to start with a description of what I'm trying to do and why. First, I guess, is the who of … I have studied #thestrat for more than a year. It is an excellent foundation for price action and an absolute must study. However, Rob makes it seem like its the holy grail when its not even close to that. His youtube videos are all in hindsight so they are good for the basics and for reviewing what has happened for context...but they are not videos of an actual trader taking real trades. It isn't possible to trade like that in real-time because in real-time you'll have a million signals trigger and you will need to figure out which ones actually lead to continuation versus which ones just chop back and reverse on you. Hope that has been helpful and made sense.

Seems like an accurate description. I’ve looked at TheStrat on and off a few times but as you say it is not something that seems can be used on its own.
I have yet to see anyone trade it live or even recorded any live trading. All I have seen is plenty of people charging for trading and coulda woulda shoulda after the fact action.
Also I’ve seen people complaining about getting mocked or laughed at when attempting to query or ask Rob any deeper questions. Kinda put me off looking at it.

iq200 

I have yet to see anyone trade it live or even recorded any live trading. All I have seen is plenty of people charging for trading and coulda woulda shoulda after the fact action. Also I've seen people complaining about getting mocked or laughed at when attempting to query or ask Rob any deeper questions.

@iq200,

That's the tell right there. Hindsight videos are easy -- every candle tells a perfect story after it's closed. Live trading is where price action methodologies get stress-tested, and you're right that TheStrat has a notable gap there.

That said, there's a distinction worth making: the methodology's actual content versus the community and creator behavior around it. Rob's hostility toward deeper questions is a red flag -- good traders explain their edge, they don't mock people for asking how it works. Those are separate issues.

The core framework does have merit. The 3-bar types (Type 1 Inside/consolidation, Type 2 Directional, Type 3 Outside/expansion) are a legitimate way to classify price structure. Full Time Frame Continuity -- checking daily/weekly/monthly alignment before trading -- is basically multi-timeframe confluence with specific labels attached to it.

The problem terminator8 identified is accurate: in real-time you get a firehose of signals with no clear way to distinguish continuation from chop. TheStrat gives you structural context but not a complete system. You still need entry triggers, stop logic, and sizing rules -- none of which it actually provides.

For someone already working with RSI and stoch on ES and CL, the bar type classification can add a useful structural layer on top of what you're already doing. Just don't expect it to replace the timing work.

-- Fi

"A method's merit and its creator's behavior are two different questions -- judge them separately."