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I have been largely dormant on this site and don't even have a journal here. So, take it for what you think is worth...
In my experience, both Mack and Al Brooks methods will work if you put in the time and effort.
Al's work is hard to learn and understand. You need 2 things with his method. Enormous degree of Patience, not just with learning, but also with implementing it live. If you think it is just about H1 and H2 entries, you are dead in the water. There is a lot more to context in this approach. You have to adapt yourself to the kind of day and volatility. The second thing you need is capital. I would say at least 50K if you want to implement proper position sizing with a 1% max risk per trade under all market conditions.
Mack's method can be called a subset Al's H2L2 entries and MTR variants (wait for a trend line break and wait for a HL or LH in opposite direction). It is easy to understand and implement. You get more entries per day than Brooks' approach. The downside is that your edge is razor thin, partly because of the bad RR ratio. Unless you are a very good scalper, you won't last long.
I really don't care if any one of them actually trades. What matters is what works for you. In my opinion, Al Brooks is the real deal. He calls out live entries and I have made money taking them. You need a a lot of patience and capital as I mentioned earlier. With Mack, I am not sure if he trades live. Marking trades after the fact it relatively easy. Telling that price action can never be wrong is BS. If you are starting out, his method might be easier to understand. There is not much of adaptability required. But, once you take some full sized losses real time, it will make you think. Don't get me wrong. You can still make it work but your edge is small and you will always have to trade with the feeling that the next trade might wipe out a lot of earlier gains.
The other thing to consider is, if you looking to do this for a living at some point, you will have to trade size. This will be a downside with Mack's scalping style unless you are really really good at scalping to overcome the commission overhead. Brook's approach is more tolerant to mistakes and losing trades.
My suggestion is to take a look at Lance Beggs manuals (yourtradingcoach.com)
For me was the best ever spent money on a trading course. He has a very structured approach on PA but also a very extensive part about how to conduct a trading business.
IMHO even if ignore the PA part. the books worth the money because teaching you how to approach trading in a professional manner.
If I would have to give an advice to a PA rookie I would say to start with Beggs' books and study them for at least 6 month and then go with Mack from PATs books and then with Macks videos.
But, hey, this is just my opinion and I was never into Al Brooks simply because I do not consider being a real trader those advertising them self at Traders Expo in Las Vegas.
Although I am impressed by someone's trading success who also happens to write books, I don't think their brokerage statement is an absolute qualifier or non-qualifier. At first I bought into that idea because it seems so logical. If you really know something about the markets, show me your profits, right? It's the old "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach."
But to believe that, I also have to believe that all those professors at Wharton's or Harvard Business are frauds unless they are successful entrepreneurs themselves. If an engineering teacher has never built a bridge, he would also be a fraud by that criteria. So, no, I don't believe that is a "truism".
I think there are some successful traders who are probably crappy teachers, and I think there are some students of the market who may have an extensive understanding of market moves, indicators, averages and so forth, but maybe don't have the proper mental mindset to actually trade themselves.
When I am considering buying someone's book or course, I do run the author through Google to find out what other people have gotten out of the course or book. If I find that a majority of folks found the material useful, then I may give it a whirl myself. And, if the author/teacher is well known as a trading success, that's certainly extra reinforcement.
And finally, I'm sure there are some folks who are successful traders, then write a book or develop a course and let the material stand for itself. Since they really have nothing to prove, have already made their money in trading, they may not really care about sharing their personal financial information with the world. Who knows.
Just my two cents worth. Have a great weekend!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
