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've read quite a few books on trading over the past few years, nothing comes close to this material. This is not beginner level material, you need to at least have an understanding of charts, terminology, patterns and basic price action. Even if you only grasp 20% of this content that is enough to make you consistently profitable. Put the time in to really understand the concepts and this book will pay off. Realizing that 80% of the time a market is rangebound and not trending (which is also why so many people lose money), a trending trading range day verse a trend and channel day should be your first order of business. As you familiarize these concepts and patterns more you will interpret the market so much better and with the confidence you need to make money.The book has about 13 pages of terminology if you've traded for a while you will mostly be familiar with them (like inside bar/inside outside inside IOI, trend channels, trend lines, three pushes ABC corrections.The negative comments I see around this book are from people who lack the fundamental concepts around trading or were looking for a quick fix, there is no quick fix. It takes time and discipline. As another user stated if you can't understand the price action in this book you shouldn't be day trading. The market is a zero sum game and if you want to make money you need to know what institutions are doing. If you need help drop a comment.I trade large cap stocks (NVDA, APPLE, FB, etc) using TradingView for charting and Think or Swim for trade executions. Same principals apply across Futures (which the book uses primarily for examples).Year 2 Update:So over the past year I've continuously used Al Brooks expertise for formulating trades and have started to see consistent profitable days & have isolated my trading to QQQ only. This has not been easy by any means, but that should not be your expectation when trading against financial algorithms. From reviewing his books & videos (he also provides an entire video series that is just as good if not better if you're a visual learner) the most important things I've learned is structuring trades. On any trade you usually have a 40%-60% probability of making money, and as long as you can structure your trade 1/2 risk/reward or better (and always go for better than 2x), it can be taken. Does that mean it should? Only if its high probability (are you buying in a trend on a pull back/breakout to a new high, moving average gap bar) or a trading range are you limit ordering the bottom of a trading range or top of a trading range? The 2nd important piece is always understand measured moves Leg 1 = Leg 2, if you have a Trading Range breakout, measure the height of the trading range, add that expecting move onto the breakout. Also trade with one timeframe, if you can't make money on a 5 minute do not add higher timeframes. There is so much to unpack in the books that you must give yourself time, but if you really put the work into it you will start to see charts from an entirely different perspective. Still highly recommend but it’s not a read once and make money type of book, it's an investment that takes studying and refinement to really comprehend.A few other books I'd recommend (in addition to Al Brooks Trading Ranges & Reversals'Reminiscences of a Stock market Operator (won't teach how to trade but will give you market perspective)The Daily Trading Coach, really helpful for the mental side of trading, a lot of your weaknesses will show up time and time again & without working thru them you won't improve.Zen in the Markets (quick read/mindset or price action trader)Get Rich with Options (easy introduction to basic options covered calls, puts, credit/debit spreads)The Big ShortOne Good Trade