Course Frustration

I'm about to complete Bonus Video #11, so I'm not all the way through the course but I'm pretty close.  There were a number of concepts in the early going that seemed to come out of nowhere -- but I would say that as the course progresses, Al circles back to the same concepts again and again (he adds on them from time to time, but nothing like the beginning of the course).  I took things pretty slowly -- I actually printed out screenshots from the course and cut them out to paste in notebooks to study the concepts Al laid out and write in notes from his audio explanations.  Now that I'm almost done with the course, I can often predict what Al will say about a particular chart (maybe not every little detail, but certainly much more often than in the beginning). So just know that you're thrown in the "deep end of the pool" at the beginning, but you as you work with the same concepts over and over they start to sink in.  I hope that's helpful!

 Hey Mark, I'd have to agree with you that the course does get into the weeds rather quickly. I'll say two things that might help...

First: I think what helped me hit the ground running was reading Al's book(s). I had read his first book in the trilogy called Trading Price Action: Trends. To be honest I'm not sure how helpful the book was on it's own but it primed me for listening to the course because I was already familiar with how Al describes the market so it helped me digest the material.

Second is he does repeat himself a lot as you go through. So as he introduce new things he'll rehash a lot of concepts from earlier videos. Point being, if you don't understand it now, it might make more sense when you see it brought up again in a later video.

With all that said I'm just getting towards the end of the fundamental portion of the course. (I'm on video 33C). So it's yet to be determined how things will turn out. I'm satisfied with what I've learned thus far and I'm excited to dive into part 2 of the course.

Hi,

I've had that problem when I was in that stage of the course. 

Speaking for myself, I specifically recall the term "nested wedges" or other "nested patterns". For those, I can already tell you that they are two patterns, one within the other. So a nested wedge is a bigger wedge, where the last leg (of 3) has a smaller wedge in the last leg. So in case of a wedge bottom, you would have 3 bigger legs down, and the last leg down would consist of 3 smaller legs down. For that reason, they will probably be recognized in multiple time frames, whichmakes them potentially more important, as more traders will trade in the same direction.

Aside to this specific example, I had many more terms that I did not fully understand. But I use them as a motivation to keep going forward. I keep them in the back of my mind. They make me even more curious.

Find ways to stay positive. It should be fun, not frustrating. Keep exposing youself to the content. 

Don't get stuck on smaller things like terminology. In general, they are not the key idea of the slide. Keep moving forward.

Thank you for all the positive replies.. I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one with similar experiences. I will push forward, taking heed of the advices shared

Hi Mark,

I'm so sorry for your frustration, I totally understand what you're going through..I'll try to be as concise as I can in my answer and hopefully it makes sense.

I started my trading journey like 2 years ago and I had a terrible start: I got scammed by a guy who's actually not a trader, he gets money only by selling courses to innocent people who don't know much about the financial market. It took me a few months to realize that and then decide if I was willing to keep going towards the dream of becoming a trader.

I then discovered Al's books and I read them for almost one year untill I finally decide to buy the BTC. I've seen a lot of sh** before finding Al's methodology and I can say for sure that he's the most honest teacher I found out there. He never says it' easy, quite the opposite!

I know it's confusing, it is, you're totally right. However, when I try to look for a better way to structure the BTC, I simply cannot find one. It doesn't look like there is a logical flow to the lessons, but there is and if you keep on this VERY difficult path, you'll' slowly see that.

i'm not a trder yet, but when I look back, I see things making a lot more sense than a few months ago.

Hopefully it makes some sense and helps somehow 🙂

Mark Tan,

I understand your frustration. I had watched some Al Brooks videos before buying the course so I was a little familiar with his style. Al talks about everything at once. Even when a video is devoted to a certain subject, he will bring everything else that's relevant into it. At first you don't know much, so it's this sea of information. I'm 50% through the course and haven't reached the videos on Wedges, for example, yet throughout all the hours of video I've watched, I've heard about Wedges all the time. 

I have notebooks and take notes on every video. I recreate the charts in general scribbily form and write in actual relevant candles when necessary. Then take notes on everything. Any terms or concepts you don't understand, make a note of. Look it up in the glossary. You don't need the full work-up on Wedges, for example, just understand it's a 3 push pattern that can be continuation or reversal. 

So take notes on everything and review. The other thing to do is create your own exercises. On the signal bar section, for example, I went to live charts on my practice account and looked at ii, iii, ioi and other patterns. Any new thing you learn, go to a chart and find it.

And when you do make progress, go back and re watch videos. You catch things you miss, and understand things you didn't. 

Hope that helps, 
Alekseyev

I agree with everything Mark Davis says, (and the others too).

I spent years getting comfortable with Al's terminology, but i persisted because i was sure he knows it.

If it was easy, 60% of adults would just stay home and spend 4 hours a day daytrading from their laptop.

Yup, same experience here. I can vouch for what others have said, it gets easier while you go along and after a while you notice you start finishing Al's sentences when he points out patterns and levels in the charts.

Hang in there. Tip: Whenever he mentions a probability or statistic, write it down, and log what video and slide he mentions it in. These really make you understand the reasoning behind most of the trades you're going to take in the future, and make you feel calm and confident while trading. It's been that, and switching to a higher time frame that have been big lessons for me personally. I'm green most days now (trading live when I feel good/well rested, sim the other days), and I'm only on video 23B.

It is invaluable to read the shared experiences of everyone regarding course. As rightly put fourth by Graeme, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.. 😀 

It was enlightening and help cast a different light on things and does help in-terms of what to expect going forward with my learning.

Hey Mark, I just happened to click on your forum topic and I gotta say I agree with you on how insightful the replies from fellow members who are ahead of us are. I myself am only on Video 14A so I thought I could share some perspective as someone who's at a similar stage as yourself.

What's really worked for me in terms of curbing that frustration is pacing myself by limiting trading education to ONE hour per day and going at this daily for more than a month now. I have also made it a point not to miss two days in a row. I then consolidate what I've learnt by rewatching the videos a second time, making digital notes+screenshots. Then finalize consolidation by searching for application examples on the charts. 

I've had 2 years+ experience of on-and-off learning from two separate trading courses before BTC. Hence perhaps why finally upon embarking on BTC, I am patient enough to see that this is a marathon and not a sprint. "No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant." This is a Buffett quote I heard Al mention once in an interview and it's truly helped with establishing the right perspective in this phase of my trading journey.

I hope this little blurb helps and at the very least to let you know you're not alone and that delays don't mean denials. All the best with it all dude! 🙂 

Hey actually I had read the books before buying the course. So it becomes pretty easy for me to understand everything but it is still hard to remember everything and follow in real time. If you can, also go through the book once or twice.