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: Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar by Al Brooks
I am struggling with Al Brooks book - I really don't understand what H1, H2, L1, L2 mean. I have briefly searched some of the threads but can't see any explaination. Could someone help please?
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
You might want to take a look at the website -- Brooks [AUTOLINK]Price Action[/AUTOLINK] - Home -- you can register for free and there are daily recaps (in detail) of his trading rational, including the ability to see the definitions of all of his shorthand symbols by moving the cursor over them. You also get access to the forums there by registering plus, there is an additional subscription service which gets you real time access to Al's trading stuff during the day. I'm considering subscribing but am trying to move to a less frequent (avg 1 trade per day) shorter term trend trading mode.
Platform: NinjaTrader (It's a love/hate relationship)
Trading: CL, TF, 6E
Posts: 169 since May 2010
Thanks Given: 60
Thanks Received: 314
Here's an excerpt from one of Al's articles:
"One important concept is that of a
High or Low 1 or 2. Here’s how it
works. The first time in an upswing
that there is a bar that has a low below
the low of the prior bar, that bar is
labeled L1 (Low 1). Examples are Bars
5 and 41 in “First shift.” The next
occurrence is an L2, such as Bars 7, 28
and 45. Bar 38 is an H1 and Bar 15 is
an H2. There are several nuances to
this approach, and one or two will be
seen as the day unfolds."
Hope this helps. I agree with Heywally, check out Al's website.
The essence is more important than the mechanics. You're looking for the breakout of a two-legged pullback in a trend. That's it.
I think the book is great. IF there IS a "holy grail" out there, this has gotta be the closest thing, although, one could also argue that some of the examples may have been hand picked. In real time, everything has to viewed in context because even some of the greatest setups described in the book will still fail.
I read the book several times and certainly learned alot. It was when i joined Al's webinar service that it really tied All the concepts together. But bear in mind, mastering the concepts doesnt = making money. You can master all you want and memorize every word and setup but it really comes down to experience, screen time, and reading charts in context of everything.
In regards to the webinar service, I must say that the webinar service he provides should only be used as a learning tool and NOT to make money, as Al rarely announces the trades he takes. I have been a subscriber since last year so i can give a good run-down of the day-to-day. Typically, if he announces a trade, it will be an exit, or an entry, but rarely BOTH. Hardly will he say something like "we should be going long/short here and exit here."
I found it annoying how he would typically say, "I just got out, or i took profits here, etc.," when he didnt mention ahead of time to get in. If he did announce an entry, it would have already triggered and thus, too late for listeners to get in with a good price.
I have learned to accept this and take it for what is it, a learning tool and just ignore the comments where he made points on a trade and i was left in the dust. But for some, it can be a maddening experience.
I do appreciate how he gives reasons for and against trades. This has saved me money by simply staying out when the markets are not in favor of anything. I beleive this trait is one that all traders must possess and listening to Al can help you achieve that area of discipline. Simply walking away is sometimes best.
If you expect to be able to take trades with Al in the webinar, you will be disappointed. If you want to learn his trading style, then it can be useful, but maybe not for that price he charges for the live feed. Maybe you can purchase the videos and listen to them after market hours.
One of my biggest gripes about the trading room is that he doesnt show us trades by announcing entries and exits, despite my belief that it is purely for learning. One thing every new trader needs to do is take trades. It is really a hands on experience and without being able to pull the trigger and see your mistakes and successes, its hard to learn by watching and listening. We understand that there is no 99% setup or trade and would be most forgiving if Al called a loser from time to time. I dont think it would hurt his reputation one bit.
In summary, its a great approach to trading, but context rules. Great looking bars and setups still fail if the context isnt there and thats just the reality of it all.
Platform: NinjaTrader (It's a love/hate relationship)
Trading: CL, TF, 6E
Posts: 169 since May 2010
Thanks Given: 60
Thanks Received: 314
I actually prefer the way he does it. I want to learn to trade, not ride the coat-tails of someone else. What would happen when he decides to retire or quit the webinar service??? I'd be S.O.L.
One of Al's frequent sayings is, "Knowing something and doing it are two different things.". Very true.
I get the best benefit from Al constantly cautioning against reasons not to trade. While he doesn't announce his trades, he will almost always announce the setups he will not be trading and why. I use the service to instill caution and reserve in my trading and to get his overall view of the market pulse.
You are very right about context. I hear comments occasionally about how people have gone back through and feel his setups are 50/50. It's impossible to get a good feel for price action on a static chart. You cannot look back on a historical chart and accurately determine context. For example: what appears to be a good trend setup bar may have actually gone from the high to low several times over the 5 minutes. It may appear to be a trend bar on a historical chart, but the live price action showed otherwise.
It's important to remember this is price action trading, not price pattern trading.
I learned a lot in the book and articles. One has to keep in mind that the book and articles/End of day comments are made with benefit of Hindsight. Setup worked,it gets named Wedge,H2,FBO etc...
Real Time you dont know yet if the setup will work or become failure of a failure. Money is made Real Time and very few can do it for obvious reasons,its very hard. Day in and Day out market is differant.
In the Live room, good comments are made about each bar in general. Any possible setup will be given a reason to take it and not to take it. Its up to the individual to decide(its your money). Price for the room is 100 shackles, to some its peanuts, to some its a lot.
Considering all the Indicator/Guru crap out there, this is great stuff. I would recommend especially to beginning traders,this will help with the difficult leraning curve.
after taking a free trial of al's webinar...i really liked his approach to trading without indicators. it is truly amazing on how much info he sees on a single 5 min bar.
i decided to sign up for his service at $99 month and then cancelled my subscription after the first two weeks. why? because his website or "forum" is a joke. here's why... there are only 5 questions allowed at the end of the trading day in the webinar. you have to be quick. after posting my question to al, the "forum's admin" would reply back requesting that i "shorten the question" because it was too long. i told them that if i shortened the q then it would be out of context. also, keep in mind that the "forum" is not run by al himself...but a group who "contracts" with al on a month to month basis. so basically in a nutshell, don't expect al to reply back on every question you may have. i found the forum useless due to it's restrictions and rules. so basically i would watch and listen in the webinar everyday, all day listening to al which is cool, but i have to admit it got old when he would say "i just got out" a few times everyday. it was frustrating that i had no way of asking him questions during the day so i would (against the rules) write my q's down and at the end of the day would post all of them at the end of the day in the webinar. the forum was quick to tell me that i was breaking the rules and needed to stop. it was a very frustrating situation for me. i have been in a few trading rooms in my time and this one sucked big time. keep in mind that al has zero to do with running the forum's admin dept so he really has no obligations after the mkt has closed. al is great and i like him but his forum sucked and shouldn't really be called a forum imo.
i did get a chance to learn a few things and understand his setups. they are easy to see but the key is to be able and "filter" the bad setups. al is always looking for a reason "not" to take a trade and i respect that.
Trading: Equities, index options and futures/futures options
Posts: 190 since Apr 2010
Thanks Given: 66
Thanks Received: 198
Did you ever post those questions in the Daily Updates section? Al answers questions posted there every day, including long complicated ones. By the time Al gets to the questions at the end of the webinar he has put in a 7 hour day so keeping the questions short and limited in number is not unreasonable. The forum is the place for the complicated questions, not the webinar.
Very good point, which has been made previously in this thread.
Price action is not about patterns or mechanical trading looking at 5 min ES bars to my make a H1, L2 or whatnot.
Who knows if a 5 min chart is significant on a particular day? It might be that the 2 push/fail patterns turn up on a 10/15/30 min chart, who knows which timeframe is dominating? The main thing is to know what to look for, and it's certainly not always 5 min reversal bars close to the EMA 14.
You don't believe me? Then pull up a 5 min ES from today and see how much times you would be stopped out doing mech trading.
Ceramictilepro/dude_trader, I am sorry you feel you were unfairly treated by the admins at the Brooks Price Action forums. There are two sides to every story and I think we went out of our way to try and accommodate you. Feel free to respond over at the BPA website where everything can be out in the open and in the appropriate venue. For those that are interested, you can read the other side of the story in the arbitration section of the forums. Sorry to Big Mike for the intrusion.
