Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Book Discussion: Trading Price Action Trends, Reversals, Ranges by Al Brooks
I would say, yes. You do have to do your own work of re-reading and summarizing but it's definitely much better written than the first book. I've been waiting for the second edition for almost a year and I am not disappointed. It is still not easy to read, but, hey, it's a book on price action, not a love story, so I didn't expect it to be easy.
I find it well structured. He made an effort of keeping sentences short and to the point.
There are some things I don't like: for example, when analyzing charts, he starts then analysis from the middle of the chart, then jumps to the beginning and then continues on (so he may discuss bar 8, then 5, then 10, then 15...). I understand that it makes sense as he is discussing the most important patterns but it is sometimes hard to follow.
Also, at the beginning of each chapter he gives you the "theory", for example, he will discuss spike and channel trend days for 12 pages, describing in detail a day but you have to "draw" a chart in your head to understand what he means as there are no charts to illustrate his theory. He gives you the charts later in the chapter but not at the beginning when he describes the theoretical framework.
I read the first book twice, have not started the next two. I've also spent two days in his trading room. I've been a bit hesitant to post because I wasn't sure how to add anything valuable. But now that I've been focused on the market exclusively the last few weeks, here's my views.
The book is excellent, but you have to be aware that he is not presenting you a strategy. He is presenting you his analysis of exactly what is going on in the market with each candle. There are many patterns I've seen before and had no idea how or why they happened. Now I have a better understanding.
One example that he explained was microchannels. I'd see them all the time and never understood what caused them. Same with overly large candles. I used to enter at the top of one thinking it was a sign of strength, only to be disappointed by an immediate drop. He calls them exhaustion candles and should be looked at as the end of a strong move that has gone past it's point of sustainability. These are just a couple examples of market patterns I've seen and never had an understanding of.
It didn't take long to realize that strict price action isn't my style, but he is a master of his domain. Anytime you can learn from an expert, it's an opportunity that shouldn't be passed up.
For the past 2 years, i have been jumping from system to system, strategies to strategies until i finally chance upon al brooks 1st book which is about the same time his trilogy came out which is about the same time i chance upon this awesome forum while i am searching for his webinars.
what i am trying to say is that when i read his book, the market finally made sense to me. I finally found something that i believe in that can make money in the market.
So whether it is worth it or not, i believe the best answer you can ever find is only after you read it.
As a Chinese, I have to confess that his book is difficult to digest as English is not my mother tongue. What I think is if you have candlestick knowledge, u could definitely grab something from him as candlestick / price action is applicable for any time frame. I usually rewrite his terminology with the candlestick patterns found in other books (although they are not 100% identical, one could focus on the difference) and I think understanding the concept is of much great value than reread what he write several times before move on (I've marked which pages that I do not fully understand and will reread them after finishing all three books).
I have to agree, not only candlestick knowledge, i believe Technical Analysis of Stock Trends by John Magee and Robert D. Edwards is a good book to go along with al brooks price action books.
I was hoping that you can help me with a dilemma which you may have been familiar with some time ago.
You mentioned that you were having an issue understanding the H1 etc concepts of Al Brooks. However, it seems like you have had that "Eureka" moment; my bulb has not switched on yet !!!. I'm at the point where I kind of get it, but just need confirmation.
I am not 100% Al Brooks; I am very technical based, with PA being the most prominent strategy used. I've twisted and skewed Al a little, but am still in the ever-working process of sharpening my game plan.
Cloudy (or anyone), if you could spare a few minutes of your time to confirm how you interpret this, I would be very appreciative.
Let me see if i can help you with the h1,h2. I am no expert and I apologize in advance if i am wrong but this is my interpretation of brooks concept .
A start of a leg is from a swing point (higher high, higher low, etc), in this chart we will use the swing high(highest point in the chart) as an example so the price did a swing high and it traded lower for 4 bars then the fourth bar has a high that is higher than the previous bar, this makes it a H1 and it completes the 1st leg down. H1 rarely succeed in reversing anything as is in here.
The price continues its 2nd leg down and even though it pullback once during the 2nd leg down, the bar did not trade above the high of the previous bar so it does not count as a H2.
A H2 happens after the price traded below the EMA which also makes it a EMA gap bar and even though it did not test the start of the pullback, it did yield a 10 pips profit for me .