Trading Price Action Trends: Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader 1st Edition

Having had so much experience with Al Brooks methods before this new book came out, it is hard for me to discuss Brooks' price action methods and methodologies without sounding like a groupie.My first exposure to Al Brooks work was several years ago when a trading buddy of mine suggested I read a column Brooks had written for a well-known trading magazine. Even though the article was only several pages long, it took me about two hours to work through the column. Why did it take me so long? Because the article was an incredibly detailed bar-by-bar analysis of the price action of several S&P emini charts. The next day when I attmepted to apply the methods Brooks wrote about in the article, to my own surprise, I correctly called several turns of the market in real time with my trading buddy. For the first time I felt like I had a working, practical model of how markets actually work. From that point on, I have had a voracious appetite for studying and using Brooks methods. When his first book came out, I had it overnighted to me. Brooks first book has been incredibly useful to me. Having said that, it was also an incredibly slow and tedious read. I am a member of several local trading groups and I personally know many professional traders who have started reading Brooks first book. Most of these people have never gotten past the first chapter. I joke with my trading buddy that Brooks first book is a good test of how bad some one really wants to learn how to become a professional trader. The reason the first book was so slow to read is that it took the reader through many, many charts and analyzed the price action bar by bar in each chart. Over the last couple of years I have purchased over 20 copies of Al's first book and distributed them as gifts. Only one of the people I gave the book to has finished the book. Not surpriseingly, this person has read it several times and studied it thoroughly and is well on his way to making himself a successful trading career. I was already familar with Brooks methods from his columns and web-based presentaions when I received his first book by overnight delivery form Amazon. My goal was to spend as much of my free time as I could that summer in attempt to make it through the book five times by the end of summer that year(Labor Day). I only made it through three times by the end of summer. I took time off my "real" job that summer and spent at least two full days at least 8 hour per day or more days a week in the library. Most of the weeks that summer I spent much more time than that studying Brooks methods. And when I say you have to "study" Brooks methods and techniques to master them , I do mean "study". To parphrase Mark Douglas from his book, "Becoming a consistently successful trader is one of the most difficult things a person can attempt to do." Studying Al Brooks price action methodolgy will greatly increase your chances of making trading success a reality. The hardest part of learning to trade is trying to figure out who really knows waht they are doing and who is BSing you in order to sell you something. I had unfortunatley wasted a lot of time and money searching for a trading methodolgy that was reproducible, sound and logical. As most people know who have attempted to learn how to trade, there is no easy money in tradiing.I have just finished my second reading of this new book and I must say it is every bit as thorough and valuable as the first book but it flows much more easily. Even with as much as I already knew about Brooks' methodology, this book has many new gold nuggets of market wisdom and extremely valuable trading insights that space considerations did not allow Brooks to put in his first book. The emphasis of Brooks' first book was learning how to be a chart reader and to read price action on a chart. There is a lot more detail about the actual mechanics of trading in this new book than there was in Brook' first book. By spreading his knowledge out over the three books of this series, I think Brooks has made his price action methods much more user friendly. Make sure you don't skip any parts of the book. In a single sentence, buried in any paragraph, could be a very valuable and useful trading insight. Since I thought I was already familar with the basic definitions of Brooks' methods, I was tempted to skip the first section titled "List of Terms used in this Book." Don't skip this section. As is typical with Brooks, even a mere glossary section has several very valuable trading insights and pointers. Everything Brooks does is content dense.I would higly encourage any one is really serious about building a successful trading career to start with this book as well as the next two books which are coming out in this series over the next two months. I have already pre-ordered the next two books and even paid the extra for overnight delivery. Even though the official release date for the second book is not until January third, I am hoping that the second book actually arrives before Christmas so I can get a jump on reading it between Christmas and New Years. Apparently, most of the time Amazon.com usually releases the books a couple of weeks before the official date on the web site. That is what has happened before.Brooks openly credits a lot of what he teaches as coming from the classic work of Edwards & Magee. I have never studied their work, but my impression is also that a lot of Brooks methods also come form many years of hard-earned experience of dealing with the markets. I have been in Brooks chat room since its inception. Most trading chat room hosts are at it for at most a couple of hours a day. Brooks is analyzing the markets almost non-stop from just before the open of the S&P day session to his after market analysis. His incredible, almost machine-like stamina could only come from an incredible passion for trading and markets. What is amazing is his concentration and commentary is almost on a tick by tick basis for the entire day session. You will feel Brooks passion for trading and understaning markets when you read his books.In the book, Brooks briefly discusses how the circumstances of his life have changed in the recent few years and he has felt compelled to come out of his "trading cave" and put his methodology down on paper. By his own description, Brooks is a "trading hermit". I feel very lucky that he has done so. To use a corny methaphor, it is almost like being in the neighborhood when Yoda decides to come out his cave and teach people in the public how to use The Force. If you are intelligent, you will at least give it your best shot to attempt to learn it. And remember, it won't be easy but it will be worth it. Good Luck in your trading and buy Al's new books. And then actually study them.

I read Al's first book, "Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar", and found it different from any other trading book I have ever read. It gave me a different view point in how to approach day trading futures. Indeed, it was wordy and hard to follow. In fact, a trader who has limited experience at day trading will give up after the first few chapters. Al is not a great writer but I appreciate the effort he has made to impart his knowledge that he has gained over the past 20+ years. Most successful traders whouldn't take the time to write a book about how they trade, let alone, willing to rewrite the book two years later to clear up reader critiques. Al didn't write this book to stroke his ego. I believe his motivation is strickly to give back.What's so special about this book and the other two of this series? To me, it is the final summarization of my day trading education, I have concentrated my time (around 10,000 hours) over the past four years to be a successful day trader. All of us know how hard day trading is. As a retired successful entrepreneur, with a BS in EE and an MBA from one of the top five schools, I find this to be the hardest undertaking I've ever gone through. Al gives you the critical insights to predict what may happen on the right side of your screen as the day unfolds. Ive been a member of four ES futures trading rooms and learned alot from each one of them. I no longer use a trading room. I am able to successfully identify and execute my setups without the confusion that often occurs in trading rooms. One minute their scalping short and then long a few minutes later. His teachings are very repeative and detailed, but that is what it takes to understand and retain the knowledge he imparts. If you have limited experience in day trading, you will be lost, but if you have a few years under your belt you will recognize that what Al is explaining makes a lot of sense. For me confidence has been the most difficult characteristic for me to master. Without confidence you will miss your setups or enter too late. Remember you must enter without fear everytime your setup appears. You can't cherry pick your entries. If your setup has proven successful overtime when you backtested or traded it on the simulator, you must enter all the setups in live trading. Al gives you detailed knowledge on defining your setups, techniques to enter trades and trade exits. Probably the best guideline I've received is that most moves have two legs. I knew that before, but Al saying it made me focus on it while I'm in a trade.I've read two of his new books, "Trends" and "Reversals", both are fabulous. Yes they are easier to read than the first, better organized but still wordy which is okay, helps the learning process. Definitions of his terms are in the front of each book, a big help. At the end of "Reversals", Chapter 25, he gives 78 suggested guidelines, excellent.There is no shortcut to being a successsful day trader. Years of experience is the key, but Al Brooks has provided a guidebook to potentially get you there in the shortest time and at the least cost. Thank you Al, you are my hero!