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I'm looking here for some advice from someone who was been in a field for a while. While searching the web and this forums about the Al Brooks video course it got me wondering if it is viable purchase for someone who is somewhat new and on the beginning of this trading journey. I've never purchased anything so far. I don't find him boring at all, but is it for me and/or is there anything better I should do for now? Or any other program I should acquire and learn from it.
No video or course will give you anything you can't already get for free or next to free on the internet. Al Brooks even has free videos on youtube. No one person will be able to teach you how to trade. They can only teach you how they trade. If they were that good at it, they'd make way WAY more money at trading than the bother of teaching others is worth. There IS value in learning how others trade. However, you will take bits and pieces from all of them and build the method that is right for you. There are lots of books available for much less than a trading course.
Also check out Mark Douglas on youtube. Giving people money to teach you to trade is usually something traders regret later. That being said, Al Brooks is probably one of the least expensive ones out there. Just watch his videos on youtube. You will learn all the valuable stuff there.
Good luck and let us know what you decide. Even if you spend your money on a course, nobody will think ill of you. So, come and share your experience with us.
Well, you already said that Al Brooks doesn't bore you, so that took away the main caution I was going to make about him.
But, I did purchase his course, some time ago, and worked through it carefully and conscientiously. I also read, or tried to read, his books. I did learn from all of that, but I didn't learn how to trade. Just got a lot of ideas that I worked over and combined with other things until I had something I thought I could use. Then I tried it, and had to go back to the drawing board, and tried again, etc. And that's about the best I can say about Brooks or anyone else. On the other hand, many of the things you will see offered for sale are sort of worthless, and quite a few are worth even less than that, so I would not be in a hurry to buy stuff. (I am sure that pretty soon, someone will come in to this thread and will tell you that Brooks is no good either.... which is part of the whole picture: no two people are going to get the same thing out of any course or any other resource. Some will think it's terrific, some will think it's a total scam.)
I would say that you could do worse than Brooks, but you won't be able to just pick it up and run with it. Nor with anything else, until you have taken it in and made it your own, which also means that you will have changed it to suit you, even if you didn't mean to.
I would spend some time with some of the trade journals on this forum and read other posts that seem interesting to you. And generally, look into a lot of things and see if you can put together some sort of view of trading that resonates with you and that you can put to use.
Go slowly, don't spend much money on something from others, and don't ever fall for someone selling a "system" for the low, low price of [fill in the blank... sometimes they get pretty expensive, and there are always people willing to shell out thousands of dollars for a "sure thing". Don't do this.]
Nothing is going to take the place of trying things out for yourself, but this can be a big step, and a very expensive one. If you want to make the step less intimidating, if you don't have a brokerage account yet, you can get on something like TradingView, a site that offers delayed price data and gives you a cheap way to practice simulated trading with no risk. Just don't stay in the artificial world of no-risk simulated trading for too long, because confronting and managing risk is among the personal hurdles that everyone has to deal with.
And good luck. It can be a long road, but not necessarily a hard one. (If you want it hard, you can have that too. And probably will, actually. . ) Basically, it's rewarding if it's something you like, like everything else.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
As others have mentioned, there is a lot of free material out there online and there is good info in journals and threads here on futures.io. I tend to stay away from anyone selling education on how to trade. However, I have purchased a few things over the years. I like a number of the free videos by Market Stalkers on YouTube and her fairly inexpensive training videos on Udemy under the same name.
No matter what you do, though, don't trade with real money until you have found and have successfully traded one or more methods/strategies successfully in sim for an extended period of time. Then, when you start trading with real money, you will have more confidence and will be better able to stick to your trading methodology when your trading account is at risk.
I've done a fair bit of looking, listening, and learning(?) and I think my favorites are Adam Grimes' free courses here: https://www.marketlifetrading.com/
He has a "first steps" course and then the main course is called "The Art and Science of Trading" based on his book by the same name. If you search for his name on FIO, you'll find several webinars and opinions from other traders. Personally, I just like how he approaches the market, and I've seen a lot of similarities between his advice/opinions and those of other people I got value from, like Alexander Elder and Big Mike from this forum.
Just keep in mind that I'm not particularly experienced...
Thank you for your input, I'm grateful and will heed your advice.
Just to make it clear I've been papertrading from February this year and got consistent results. But when I started trading with real money, it was a beast I wasn't prepared for. I have some background in psychology, psychotherapy and also do Ice Baths daily, coupled with breathing exercises and some yoga. I was shocked how easily I fell prey to some basic emotions. Quite a painful lesson, but a lesson nevertheless.
Also as far as technical analysis go. I'm trading double top/bottom + support and resistance. And am very rough around the edges, they need quite some refinement.
So these two sticking points I'm currently trying to get on top of.
Again thank you for helping me with my decision, and back to the drawing board.
