BPA trading room Q&A: April 21, 2015
When are you planning on releasing new videos for your trading course? Can you discuss what it will cover?
Audio duration: 5min 36sec — Scroll down for video slide samples and transcript.
Brooks Trading Course update
Video slide samples – No audio narration (4min 20sec)
This video is much faster than the actual speed because I wanted traders to be able to quickly see what the changes look like. Please do leave comments below if you wish to share your feedback or have questions on course update. A full length video lesson will be available later to better show the complex animations, and invite more feedback.
Audio transcript
I’m no Leonardo
Yeah, I’m in the process of totally redoing the trading course, but I’m not Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo Da Vinci carried the Mona Lisa around with him for 20 or 30 years and he kept adding to it – kept touching it up, kept touching it up; became this, life-long project, and for me, the trading course is that way as well. I get a lot of questions in the room, I get emails, I get questions on the trading course website, questions when I speak, when I do webinars, and all of that gives me an idea of what traders need from the course to make it more useful.
I’ve been resistant to learning on how to make better PowerPoints, but over the past couple of months I’ve spent a lot of time learning. People have been helping me, but I’ve been learning a lot about how to make much more useful PowerPoints. And in the course right now, you’ll notice that there are a lot of slides that are all text, and sometimes there’ll be five, 10 slides in a row without text. Well in the new version of the course almost every slide has charts. But it’s going to take me six months to complete. I don’t know if I can do it in six months. I think I have probably another 800 hours of work to do. That’s not an exaggeration. There are a couple of people who know what I’m doing and I show them stuff, they’re helping me a lot. Based upon what they’re telling me I should do to make the course really user-friendly, and based upon the rate at which I’m accomplishing what they’re doing, I think it’s going to take me maybe six months to complete what I really want to do.
Most trading course text replaced by charts
And what I’ve done so far, I think, is very useful. I think traders are going to find it much easier to use than anything else I’ve ever done. So instead of a lot of text slides, I’m having a lot of charts – almost every slide is a chart with new material to the left of it and then animations going through taking traders through step by step by step. Next year, I’m hoping to add video to the course as well, but that’s going to take me probably at least a year. I first have to get through the current project. So what I’m hoping to do next year is use Camtasia or some other screen capture program to capture trades that I’m placing on my other computer and then put them into the course. If I do the Camtasia capturing of trades, which I’m hoping that I will do, I’ll probably also put them on the Brooks Trading Course website. But that is way down the line.
Right now I’m redoing the course, and I have to say I like doing the course. I’m an old guy now, I’m 63. I used to like watching a lot of sports. I used to like watching even sitcoms, and now, for whatever reason, I’ve lost interest. Maybe I’ve seen every variation on every theme so that a lot of what’s on TV at night is uninteresting. I play tennis several days a week, I run, I lift weights. I live a pretty quiet life. I see my kids occasionally. My fiancé, Laura, and I, we go out to dinner almost every night, but we don’t really socialize much, I like life living a very quiet life and I like sitting in front of my computers and thinking. I’m constantly thinking about things. And it makes me happy to sit down and try to create slides that I think will be helpful to traders, and that’s what I do right now with my spare time. It will probably take me six months to do it, to go through all the slides – and it’s not an exaggeration. I think it’s going to take me 800 to 1,000 hours to redo all of the slides, at least that’s what I calculate now based upon the rate at which I’m doing it.
Audio and video recording
And then I have to record everything. And now that I’m getting old, as you can tell, my voice tends to crack after I talk for a while, so to record the videos to create the audio for the PowerPoints, I have to talk – some of the videos are 30 minutes long – I’m keeping all the videos on the new course to about 30 minutes. Right now, there are some videos that are over an hour; I have broken those into two or three videos going forward. Also, I have numbers on all of the slides so it will be easy if you’re going through the video – it will be easier than ever – you’re on slide 31 or something. And I also put a little Table of Contents at the start of each PowerPoint so that you’ll have some idea of what the video will have.
With the audio, I probably can talk 10 or 20 minutes without my voice getting too unpleasant, so even to record a 30 minute PowerPoint is going to take me probably several hours. Since I’m breaking videos up into pieces, instead of 50 videos I’ll probably have 65 videos, and they’ll all be about 30 minutes long. But it’s still 30, 35 hours, and if it takes me three hours to record each, that will be another 100 or 200 hours on top of the 800 to 1,000 hours I need to create the slides. I’m not going to do the editing of the audio and video; I have someone who’s going to do that for me. However, the little pieces that I’ve seen so far, the little testing that we’ve done, I think traders are going to be really, really happy with how it turns out.
To me, I’m really happy with it, and it’s part of my motivation. I feel like I’m doing something really good and helpful, but also there’s a certain amount of creative element to it. I’m kind of prosaic, kind of concrete and I’m not good artistically. But I do feel I’m pretty good at logically organizing things, and understanding things, and communicating things. I’m working really hard to try to communicate really well with the new videos. So to me, I think they’re going to be fabulous. I think it’s going to be really, really good. But assuming I can keep at the pace that I’m doing, it’s probably going to take me six months to complete the project.
So that’s a long answer to the question.
Al Brooks
Information on Al’s Online day trading room
Hi Al,
Any chance the updated course will be released in conjunction with your upcoming webinar in Vegas? 🙂
The sample slides look great!!!
Thank you for everything you do to help us learn how to trade.
I wish that were possible, but I still have many more months to go on the slides. This is a huge project. I’ve completed about 80% of the slides, but I then have to add audio. We might post a few videos of the PPTs without the audio so that traders can see what I am doing. I am very happy with how this project is turning out, but if I knew it was going to be this big when I started, I would not have undertaken it. However, I think it will be very special and helpful.
“However, I think it will be very special and helpful.”
I couldn’t agree more. Thank you, Al.
Hi Al, I’m really looking forward to seeing the course update. I like what you’re doing. The samples look terrific and will make everything so very clear. Thanks so much for all the hard work and generosity. It will really be appreciated by all.
Hi Al,
I’m so looking forward to your new course and the preview looks awesome.
You’re no doubt overloaded with ideas from your followers on things they would like to see in the new course, but if I may I would like to ask if certain aspects are covered. Throughout your books you talk about reversals not being strong enough to reverse what has gone before and, to me, this is one of the hardest aspects to assess real-time. Will you be covering this topic ie examples of relative strengths of strong moves followed by reversal attempts with rationale as to why either is stronger?
Also, along the same lines, is the question of whether the market has flipped the AI direction. I trade the FTSE and find that much of the time I think the market has flipped with an exceptionally strong move only to realise a few bars later that it reversed at a new channel / trend line on a first signal. Determining the AI direction and whether there has been a flip would be another topic that could be covered using many examples with rationale as to why the market has / hasn’t flipped.
I have been searching on this site without luck for a steer on how much the new course might cost to previous purchasers. Can you provide any guide on this?
Many thanks for all of your hard work and help you provide to learning traders such as myself.
You are talking about telling the difference between minor and major reversals. In the upcoming version, I try to distinguish what makes a Major reversal more likely and what makes a minor reversal (trading range or pullback) more likely. Major reversals are more likely to lead to a change in the Always In direction. Minor reversals are more likely to lead to a pullback in a trend, but no change in the AI direction. I hope that I will be more clear about this in the version that I am now creating.
Looks awesome Al! Very, very professional! You are a real credit to the profession!
I’d love to see a PDF accompany the course so I can quickly reference material when scanning the markets.
I have read your first book cover to cover and have improved my trading by just being patient and waiting for pullbacks to the 20 ema.
thank you so very much for all your help
albert
ok, concerning the translation of the video in foreign languages and given your name you could be the one translating it in french 🙂
Mais, je ne parle plus français.
Hi Al, the new slides look great, makes it much easier to relate the bar patterns to the current trading concept being taught.
In one of your sample slides you show “5 Tick Traps”. This brought to mind a somewhat related subject.
In the Trading Room, you will occasionally point out where traders are trapped in and/or out of trades, and you also show how this can lead to moments where both Bull and Bear cohorts are buying or selling at the same time.
I find this to be a particularly powerful and insightful point of analysis on your part. I would like to improve my ability to observe these Trap situations as they develop.
Would you consider doing a segment on this Trap concept, and perhaps discuss some ways that a developing trader could do a better job of identifying them as they develop?
I personally also think that traps are fascinating and easily missed. When a trader sees one, the result is usually a high probability trade, even though it is easy for most traders to not see the high probability.
In the new course, I have a video that deals with traps (the title of the video will be something like, “Entering Late in a Trend”). If I ever do another webinar, that is a topic that I think would be worthwhile.
Hi Al,
I noticed that your upcoming Las Vegas presentation also has the title “Entering Late in a Trend”, which is identical to the title of your upcoming trap-oriented course lesson.
Can I assume that you will be covering the same trap analysis concepts during the Las Vegas talk that you will discuss in the new lesson?
yes, I will be using many of the slides from that video in the new course
This is excellent Al, I cant wait for it to come out but it will be worth the wait.
Hi Al!
I look forward to your updated trading course. I’m presently working through both your books (3 ea…yes, like learning to play the violin…or learning to play master level chess (note, I’m a cat 1 level chess player)) and your course. This is the best material I’ve found (that is worthy enough for MY TIME) that can “mastered” (it is certainly not easy…who ever said trading is easy?) to become a consistently profitable trader.
Thank your so much for your hard work and sharing your expertise!
Hi Al,
It seems the new version trading video is quite easier for understanding and learning, it is a simpler way to know the actual market patterns after reading your books and watching your previous video. Hope you succeed and thank you.
Hi Al,
The new course looks great. Thank you for all of the work that you have put into it.
If possible, it would be helpful if you could release the videos in stages. That will enable us to begin as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Dovid
Hi Dovid,
Thanks for your feedback. Yes, release of course update in stages is a good idea. i will work will Al and see how best to do this.
There is a large community of traders who do not speak English very well. could be a version translated into Spanish?
Yes, I am working with people to translate it into several languages, including Spanish.
Hi i’m an italian trader. The course update is Aldo in italian language?
Thanks
Dario M.
Hi Dario,
Still need to complete research to see which languages to be done first.
Will be asking all members/subscribers soon for feedback. If there are many traders interested in Italian it will be done.
Richard
BTC Admin
Hi Al,
Thank you for your efforts to make things better. I have you previous course and it was very beneficial together with your webinars. However, I was amazed by your sample of the new course, you were able to get to the bones of terminology and definitions.
I would like to ask to include as much as possible on trade management and how to determine whether you are on the wrong side of the trade as soon as practical. I find trade management to be the hardest part of trading because both good and bad trades need to be managed in a good way in order for a trader to be profitable. In your original course this topic is covered in general terms, so if you could add examples with guidelines or pointers that would be fantastic.
Thank you again for the tremendous work that you have done with this course.
Thank you Al! Video looks great.
It sounds like it will take almost two years before you will add video to your course.
I think real time trade management is one of the hardest part of trading.Would it be possible for you to post a few videos showing you placing and managing trades before that?
That is my next project once I complete the new course.
AL i have no way to thank you for everything you have done to traders like me.
I can’t believe you can do all these at your age. I hope you will get whatever it is that you wanted.
Hi Al,
This is great! It is very close to what I had in mind when I send you some input on you course a few week ago.
I think the visuals and graphics are very easy to understand and is definitely much easier to assimilate your concepts.
look forward to see the final product.
Regards
Hector
This is excellent stuff, and in my mind exactly the kind of progression on from Al’s current work; I know this will be enormously helpful to traders – including myself.
Question – Would it be possible to release the work in stages as it is completed? As you can tell I’m very excited by it and can’t wait to see it!
Also (and I’m not that wealthy, but) I would feel obliged to pay Al for his work, as he would deserve recognition and compensation for all his wonderful efforts. So I see no problem him charging a reasonable fee for this extra work. That’s just me!
Well done Al, brilliant.
I have to echo Gerard’s comment…..hard work should be compensated.
Hi Al:
Chinese index future has became the most active future in the world,it has huge volume and amazing fluctuation everyday.
I suggest you pay some attention to the big market,which has many many traders there. I guess they will be highly attracted by you.
I trade Chinese index future now, and I follow you for 3 years. I would be vey happy if you need help.
Looks great. Looking forward to the full series.
Al,
I look forward to your final work. I find myself saying this with the current course, “if I could just think like Al on this trade, what would he do?” I’m a visual learner so more charts will be a welcome addition. Perhaps this new format will aid those like me who still struggle on their quest to master futures trading. Thank you Al, for taking the time to share your trading wisdom with the world. I very much look forward to this, and any future work.
The new improved slides are awesome. Is the sample moving so fast because it is a sample, or will the final version have slides moving that fast also. Personally, I can’t wait until it is ready to go. Very much looking forward to having it. Like many before me, thanks for your generosity and contributions. Since reading your books and studying the videos in the first version of your course, I never place a trade without thinking “How would Al look at this trade”. Doing this has improved my trading noticeably. I frequently review the videos in your first version of the course, and I wait anxiously for your email in the morning to get your take on the market. Thanks again, Al
Jon
Hi Jon,
Yes, the demo video is running fast just to show a range of slides quickly. Many web surfers will not have the patience to sit through a slower presentation.
The final videos will have Al talking through each animation/other point so will be substantially slower.
Interesting that I too often think about what ‘Al must be thinking’ when trading! Although I use a 2000 tick chart for trading, I have the 5 minutes chart up for reference and will look at it and wonder what Al is saying in his webinar room.
Best regards,
Richard
Hi Al,
I am impressed by the new format! You are giving us substantial value for the one time course fee. The quality and your attention to detail in the above sample is very impressive! Having followed your website since May 2014 it is stunning how much quality content you have created in such a short time for your loyal family of traders.
I find your morning comments extremely helpful for my swing trading. I wish I could devote more time to the emini to take full advantage of your remarks, but I still have a full time job. I tend to spend more time following the currency markets in the evenings with emphasis on EURUSD, USDJPY, and AUDUSD; so your FX comments are much appreciated!
Al, as you create new content, would it be possible to discuss some of the evolving setups without immediately revealing the entire price action response? Your thinking in terms of context and anticipated PA at the hard right edge of the chart would be very helpful – I know you have done it in a few webinars (I vividly remember your presentation at Big Mike on Jan. 14, 2013). Admittedly it is a lot of extra work, but it would add real educational value, something you cannot easily produce in printed form. In my trading I frequently catch myself not “seeing” what is happening until the end of the day and consulting your books.
Al, I also appreciate your generosity with this course.
I like the new format above, and it is easier to understand. My main complaint is that it goes so fast I have to pause the video every slide to read it and look at the chart.
In general, I tend to understand the concepts you talk about, but there are so many concepts and things to look at that I have trouble putting it into a framework to consistently analyze the market. And how do I weight all these observations against one another? That is what I have trouble with.
Al, as a long time reader of your material, I am continually amazed at your generosity to the trading community. The new slides and Powerpoint format look fabulous. I look forward to studying them in greater detail. As others have mentioned, I too am interested in the real time management aspect.
Thank you again for all that you do.
Al,
This sample looks great and will definitely add clarity to your topics. As someone who has been following you and reading your material for a long time, I am especially waiting for the real time trade management piece. Thank you for all your time and hard work making this material available to traders and also for your life lesson which apply beyond trading.
Al, the new version of the course sounds fantastic! I am really looking forward to it. Thank you for all of the hard work that you’re putting into it for us.
The new format looks much clearer with the targeted text and highlights. I’ve learned so much from the 2014 course. I can’t thank you enough for all the support your work has done for myself and hundreds of other struggling traders. You clearly put a lot of work into this revision, and I’m certainly willing to pay full price as a past customer! Thanks,
Carey
Hello Al,
Video looks great!
My thoughts are that it would be good if you could connect the text on the slide page to the specific bar or bars a little better so it’s more visual what you mean. Maybe you can use arrows or maybe making the lines of the bars larger (making them stand out some more)
I think it’s great with more chart slides and less text slides.
Thanks for your work!! I really appreciate the time and effort that you are putting into your course!
/Stefan
Hi Stefan,
Thanks for your suggestion. Al will be using the PowerPoint ‘laser’ pointer while talking through slides to make it clear what areas of chart and bars he is talking about. So should not be a problem. Al may have other ideas though based on your suggestion.
Best regards
Perfect!
I’m glad to hear Al had some use of my comment
Best regards
Stefan
Nice one Al, looking forward to seeing the new slides! The current video course is fantastic, can’t wait to see what else you can teach us! God Bless
It’s nice to hear that the update will be available to people who purchased the previous version. Also, having the daily intraday market updates available to us indefinitely, is very invaluable. It’s a lot of study material for a relatively small one-time fee, just amazing, and generous. Worth every penny, thank you again.
If I may suggest something to improve the new course videos, it would be the resolution of the videos. Although 640×480 (4:3 aspect ratio) is not too bad, i would prefer to see 720p (or higher) resolution for better clarity. There’s a lot of detail that needs to be seen on the charts, and a good resolution would help. Also, it may be better to go with a widescreen aspect ratio (16:9) which is currently used on the vast majority of computer monitors and tablets, as opposed to the 4:3 aspect ratio which is being phased out.
Thank you!
Hi Jakub,
Thanks for your kind comments. On the video resolution, yes, we are working with 1920×720 widescreen HD. If you go Full Screen on the demo video above you can see the result is very good. Source file for demo is the same as final end result.
Best regards,
Richard
Great focus on your purpose Al. Your persistence is already paying off.
Thanks,
Hugh
I really like the direction you are taking in updating the course. The course is already great, and from the samples you posted, this update will make everything very, very clear. Looking forward to it.
I am very interested to new version. It is very nice and useful. I hope that it will be finished as soon as possible. Thank you very much.
Al, I am very grateful for all the work you do to help other traders.
I have been to the Louvre and seen the Mona Lisa..They are both works of art to me.
Will the updated version of the course be free for people who have purchased the current version?
That is my current plan and I see no reason to change that, but since the new version will not be out for at least 6 months or so, and I have others advising me, I have to keep open the small possibility that they might persuade me to charge something. However, I doubt that they will succeed.
In any case, I would never ask anyone who buys the course between now and then to pay anything extra for the new course.
I look forward to seeing the finished masterpiece.