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Al Brooks Trading Course (www.brookstradingcourse.com)


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Al Brooks Trading Course (www.brookstradingcourse.com)

 
 
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 bobwest 
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Pedro40 View Post
Even lacking real broker statements, one can judge a vendor by 2 things:

1. Have at least a sim 3rd party trading record, for example on Collective2. Sure, this is not as good as a broker statement, but at least it indicates that the vendor theoretically can profitably trade. There is absolutely no excuse for not having at least this.

2. Behaviour in the live trading room. If the vendor can not give concise, before the fact trading signals and explaining why he did those trades, then it is all hogwash. Al has been criticized for not running such a room. He comes and goes, throws in ideas, etc. That isn't how you establish reputation as profitable trader...

Now the value of his books is another question and he could have good ideas even without being a hugely successful trader, but let's not advertise him as such if there is no evidence for it...

I have spent a little time sitting in on his room. Some points:

- He does not give any trade calls. He says up front that he won't, and he does not. Anyone looking for trade calling could reasonably say "Huh?", but that's not offered, and it explicitly is not.

- Part of not offering live calls, he says up front, is that the legal/regulatory requirements he would have to comply with are a burden he does not want to have. So he doesn't do them at all. (Is that why he doesn't want to show statements? I don't know. Is he right or wrong about that? I don't know.)

- What the hell does he offer, then? He gives a running commentary during the trading day and a recap at the end. I ultimately found it not that useful, but he does give the pros and cons of being long or short, often giving the case for each side. He is very clear about his reasoning, and it does help to understand how he looks at the market. Some of what I have gotten from Brooks has come from these running commentaries. However, they are also completely maddening in his scrupulous detail, and refusal to commit to one side or another.

- So, if he has to give "concise, before the fact trading signals," he does not meet that test. But then, he never gives any trade calls, either. I do think that this is a reasonable test for anyone who is giving trade calls -- so, if that's what you want, save yourself the time and a little money and skip it. (There was a free 2-day trial when I did it, and they probably still have that, so you can see if it's your cup of tea or not.)

- After the trading close, he will talk about the trades he did make, or says he made, and the reasons for them. Occasionally I think he has mentioned a trade he has taken during the day as well, but seldom, and not as he takes it. He never is telling anyone what trades to make in real time, and isn't offering to. So to repeat, don't go there hoping to get actionable "trade here" type of advice. You won't get it.

------------

OK, I think all of the above is factual, and while I gave an opinion now and then, I don't think anyone who had been in the room would disagree about the factual content, because it's what is there.

Now, some opinions :

- Factually speaking, don't go to this room if you want trade calls. I agree with @Pedro40's criteria for what a trade-calling room should have. You won't get the calls, and so you won't have the criteria met, either.

- As an opinion, don't go to any room looking for trade calls. I paid, I think, about a hundred bucks a month for Al's room, and I did it a couple of times. I would not have paid a nickle for a trade caller. It's hard to convince the hopeful and the inexperienced, but there will never be any value in that kind of thing.

- Sitting and listening to Al's droning voice hour after hour, I did finally understand enough about his slant on the market and I am happy with my bargain. It was worth the money and the time. But, I'm not putting myself through it ever again .

- He never showed me a trade, and I would have dropped out if he had -- as I said, I just don't care about somebody's trades; I want to understand the reasoning behind it. I will not ever try to copy or shadow anyone. That's a great way to fail to succeed as a trader, and not even know why, since you're just copying someone else.

- This is purely my personal opinion, but I have zero doubts about his honesty. This is just a conclusion I formed after going though the day with him, day after day. I do not have any doubts whatever that he trades his money, for real, just as he says. I do not expect anyone to accept or reject my conclusion, but I have no doubts whatever. This is a personal judgment I made from a pretty decent period of familiarity, just like everyone makes personal judgments all the time. Your opinion may vary. No problem. But it was not done blindly, nor without a large personal capacity for skepticism.

----------------

As usual, I have written more than I probably needed to. Someday I may get over my verbosity (or not....)

But I felt there was a point of view that was missing, and I wanted to get it out there.

Bob.


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bobwest View Post
- Part of not offering live calls, he says up front, is that the legal/regulatory requirements he would have to comply with are a burden he does not want to have. So he doesn't do them at all. (Is that why he doesn't want to show statements? I don't know. Is he right or wrong about that? I don't know.)

I think it's pretty much been proven this isn't true. It's not against regulations to show statements, not difficult stuff to comply with, etc. As a matter of fact the regulators actually encourage the statement things as long as it is a TRUE and VALID statement. This is pretty much the standard excuse everyone uses when they don't want to prove they actually trade with a profit.

This is from Emmett's review:

Is showing a record of trades a criminal act? TradingSchools.Org, in the past two years, has written extensively about trading educators. Not once have we ever witnessed a trading educator getting into trouble for being honest with consumers. In fact, we have been closely involved in both the criminal and civil prosecution of over a dozen fraudulently promoted trading educators and trading systems. In speaking with CFTC and SEC investigators directly, they simply laugh whenever they hear this well-worn piece of urban fiction.

There is nothing illegal with showing a trading record. However, it is fraudulent to show a trading record that has been falsified for marketing purposes. Perhaps this is the reason why Al Brooks does not publish a trading record?

Of course, trading educators like Al Brooks will attempt to obfuscate and confuse this point. They will say things like, “I talked to an attorney and they said it’s against the law”. This is pure nonsense. Securities regulators love disclosure. The more the better.

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 bobwest 
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Damn, I knew I shouldn't have mentioned statements.

My post had essentially nothing to do with statements, but that is what will attract all the attention.

Time for me to bow out of this thread.

Bob.

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 tturner86 
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Al brooks doesnt visit this thread. If you have an issue with him email him.

He hasnt logged in since may 2015.

https://nexusfi.com/trading_member/45431-albrooks.html

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal
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Pedro40
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What good is a running market commentary without trades? I might as well just watch CNBC. His excuse is obviously BS, and talking about his trades at the end of the day is fishy. At the very least he could have a C2 account with 6-8 hours delay, but at least he would have a record.

I don't doubt he trades real money but I assume his returns are nothing spectacular, over the years very few traders' returns are. He probably had a few good years in the beginning than he discovered trading education, a continuous source of income as opposed to trading.

If some people find value in is books or comments, fine, but let's not worship him as the best in trading education.

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Rory
 
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Two cents.. as I'm sitting on my hands waiting to hit target..

So you minding your own business selling your courses and books based on a system that ok, might have worked better back in the day but we all know fixed method efficacy is tidal as the markets vary and people might find a prince or kiss a frog at any one point in time, but thats just life.

Then comes Emmett Moore.

1. Immediately contact a lawyer and make it abundantly clear that your not a broke-ass scammer and if he (an ex-con) even mentions your name you will put him on the street.

Thats about it I guess. Saves getting involved in a lot of BS.

Seems to have done the trick for a couple of big vendors I know who are not listed on TradingSchools...mysteriously...

Edit: And who will continue to remain nameless as they don't want anything to do with his stink. Just because one guy is bad does not make the self-appointed sheriff good.

 
 dstrader 
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Rory View Post
Two cents.. as I'm sitting on my hands waiting to hit target..

So you minding your own business selling your courses and books based on a system that ok, might have worked better back in the day but we all know fixed method efficacy is tidal as the markets vary and people might find a prince or kiss a frog at any one point in time, but thats just life.

Then comes Emmett Moore.

1. Immediately contact a lawyer and make it abundantly clear that your not a broke-ass scammer and if he (an ex-con) even mentions your name you will put him on the street.

Thats about it I guess. Saves getting involved in a lot of BS.

Seems to have done the trick for a couple of big vendors I know who are not listed on TradingSchools...mysteriously...

Edit: And who will continue to remain nameless as they don't want anything to do with his stink. Just because one guy is bad does not make the self-appointed sheriff good.


One thing about Emmett, and I'm not going to try to defend him here, but I do think the service he is providing in invaluable. The thing I can say is that I started trading years ago with a small group of (disoriented) people from other careers but I would say quite smart people.

We've been as a group to at least 10 of his reviewed rooms (probably more). We had a Skype group and would exchange experiences, because you know how hard it is, to think that you are the 'only one' that didn't get it, the only one that didn't control your emotions, etc. One of the guys even had an emotional break down, and hired a psychologist to help him, because the set ups seemed so clear, but he couldn't make it successful, and many other stories I don't have time to describe here.

We were discussing other day and we were very angry. Not because his reviews were fake, but because how 'accurate' they were! We were angry because we as a group took so long to figure out the scams! Some rooms took us 6 months until we realized that nobody would succeed! A bunch of smart guys with executive careers in large companies. That's how well these scams are elaborated. I guess we were angry at ourselves, because here come this guy called Emmett gets into a room for a couple of weeks and can so quickly figure out the total BS.
Oh well, I guess we all matured since them, since our rule has been not to become a member of any room whatsoever, ever!

As I said 99% are scams (and I include here stocks and futures, rooms and newsletters), we are still looking for the 1% that are honest. Would love to hear someone with a good experience in a room.

PS: btw, I could even mention a couple that we have been but he hasn't reviewed yet (Alphawave, power emini, channel-trading, etc.). Can't wait until he posts his reviews. They are always fun to read (although sometimes I feel like crying because all the poor people that are putting their hard earned money into this).

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 bobwest 
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Pedro40 View Post
What good is a running market commentary without trades? I might as well just watch CNBC. His excuse is obviously BS, and talking about his trades at the end of the day is fishy. At the very least he could have a C2 account with 6-8 hours delay, but at least he would have a record.

I don't doubt he trades real money but I assume his returns are nothing spectacular, over the years very few traders' returns are. He probably had a few good years in the beginning than he discovered trading education, a continuous source of income as opposed to trading.

If some people find value in is books or comments, fine, but let's not worship him as the best in trading education.

This will be my last on all this, really....

It's just this: anyone who goes into a trade room looking for trades to take is going to lose their money, their time, their self-respect, and anything else they have.

Looking for a good trade room is a fool's errand. Period.

I do understand why people are pissed about trade rooms, and all the other scams. Here's the cure: don't go into any. There's nothing in them. So just don't bother looking for someone with a record. Stay away.

It sounds hard-nosed and realistic to demand a verifiable record before you will go to a trade room. It's actually the opposite. That means that if you saw the record, you would buy what they were selling. That's not hard-nosed, that's naive. Don't do that. Stay out of there.

So if Al not calling out trades is so useless, go to a room where some super-generous master trader is sharing all his inside secrets, and take all of his trades as he gives them to you. Sure, that's the ticket.... What could go wrong?

Obviously, everyone has to make up their own mind, and, for all I know, there may be such a room out there. But one of my main points was that even if you find it, taking that person's trades will do you no good as far as becoming a trader yourself, because you won't really know why he made them, or why they worked or why they didn't. If he decides not to run the room any more, then what do you do? You're dependent on the master, and he's gone.

That's why I said that I would never go into a room looking for someone's trade calls. Just don't waste your time.

Now I'm done.

Bob.

 
Rory
 
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dstrader View Post
One thing about Emmett, and I'm not going to try to defend him here, but I do think the service he is providing in invaluable.

I have considered the utility provided argument in the past however on balance, I see his reviews as fruit of a poisoned tree. I read continued dishonesty and scheming in his actions and some snippets reported to me by a couple of vendors reinforce this personal bias.

Regardless, like Trump I'm sure he cares nothing for criticism, any mention of his name just feeds him so I'll leave it rest.

My personal opinion is as I said, that any decent vendor should step on him immediately.

 
 
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 sam028 
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I agree with @Rory, things doesn't seems to be always clear and legit with Emmet and he changed his reviews multiple times and there were some "civilian casualties". But if the "90% are snake oil vendors" message can spread and warn the naives then let it be!
I do not agree with the comments on Al Brooks, but I think Al Brooks don't care about it so that's fine , and don't agree with other (positive this time) reviews with some factual elements I can't disclose (it's not KJ Trading).
So Al Brooks books are hard to read, his methodology is hard to follow, I suppose the trading room would be hard to follow too, but giving him the same 2 stars like other notorious snake oil vendors is not fair.

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