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Book Discussion: Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar by Al Brooks
I bought the book and i am having a difficult time following it. I wish the author who uses many examples would have them side by side so that I did't have to continuously turn the pages to follow him. He jumps in with now real background.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I trade off price levels with DOM/T&S as confirmation. I was interested in Als work as I am always interested in ways to develop levels as a day progresses whereas I develop levels pre-market and mostly stick with them.
To get anything out of Als book - you'd need to condense it to a set of notes in your own words. Als book is the first I've read where it appears the author was trying to write without taking a breath. Still, it's a nice change from the run of the mill TA books out there.
As Al has a room with a free trial, I decided to check it out. In one of the strongest uptrending days for a while, Al was talking about how choppy the market was and how he wouldn't buy in these conditions. Each time it did chop around, he gave himself a pat on the back for saying how choppy he'd called it from the open... then the market would move up again. OK - this is fair enough - no-one's going to be able to call the market all the time but there were signs of confirmation bias in play there, not a great start in my opinion.
Now - he did call out 2 trades. Both trades were shorts into pullbacks from the highs and both trades were called well after he'd got in and well after price had already moved in his direction. So, as price ticked down 5 or 6 ticks off the high, he'd say - "I shorted up there and got my first target already". The second time I heard this, I had a bit of a giggle and switched it off.
Thanks for the feedback. I have some acquaintances in that room, whom I trust. I wonder what their take on that day's discussion was? I was in another room recently where the guy does the same thing with respect to late calls, claiming it's not a trade calling room, but an educational one. Also saying, "This is a lower-rated trade" on most every one, in case it turns around. They have a different room for trade calling. But that other room, I happen to know, is a much different style and different trades. So, in essence, we have to take it from faith that this guy's trading methods work, that he truly got in "up there". It brings out giggles and other vocalizations from me, too. Not sure if Al is truly being deceptive on that aspect or not, but his apparently poor view of the market's action makes one wonder. Which day was it, if you recall?
And nice pointing out the subject of confirmation bias, which is the most generous way of looking at that scenario. A great subject, and one we must all always be wary of, in ourselves as well as others.
Dang, look at that chop! I'm not saying it was as easy to trade in realtime as it looks - in fact, I could see one getting whipsawed that first :30 - :60; it always looks easier after-the-fact. And it could be that the nature of the bars, despite trending up, made it hard for his system to find trades. But that's another issue, and it's hard to call that choppy. It will be interesting to hear some comments from others who are on here and also are in his room.
Thanks.
I am using Al's method to trade the EUR/USD and am beginning, very slooowly, to become profitable. One problem I am having is a good broker. My broker is definitely not the cause of my problems, but certainly compounds them.
I am with a Swiss broker to avoid the CFTC leverage restrictions, and found them through a friend's referral. The problem is that they are really poor at executing stop orders. I almost always get at least 1 bp slippage, and frequently more. This means my scalps are shortchanged and my stop loss is magnified. Ouch.
To add insult to injury they charge a commission. So sad.
Anyone have suggestions they would be willing to share?
I'm not saying it was as easy to trade in realtime as it looks - in fact, I could see one getting whipsawed that first :30 - :60; it always looks easier after-the-fact. And it could be that the nature of the bars, despite trending up, made it hard for his system to find trades. But that's another issue, and it's hard to call that choppy. It will be interesting to hear some comments from others who are on here and also are in his room.