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Hi all. I’m a new member.
I’ve been watching a few of the course “videos” so far (the whole “Getting Started” section and a few videos in the “How to Trade” section).
So far, I’ve only seen static presentations of different aspects of analysing markets; for example, markets can be in one of three states: trend, channel, trading range. And how to recognize those three states. And how the market cycles between these states. That’s all very good. And necessary knowledge. OK.
But are there actual action videos of trading? Where we see trades being placed and managed?
For instance, I started watching video No. 49A “Swing Trading Examples, where Al says “I will specifically give day trading examples for swing traders…” And then, a bit later, “A lot of bulls will buy the close of this bar…” Well… did you buy? Using a maket order or a limit order? What were the factors you were looking at, at that moment, that made you take that trade. Then, are you going to add (scale-in)? If yes, where, when, why? Or are you going to take profits?
Imagine this situation: We’re at the beginning of what could be a bull trend; we have a nice entry to go long and we take it. Our stop is pretty far from our initial entry (say, 4 points (16 ticks), in the ES). And since we’re a newbie, we want to swing, not scalp; therefore our target is at 2X our risk, at about 32 ticks.
After 3 bars, all up, all closing in the top third, we now have a “profit” of 6 points. On paper, of course. But the next bar starts going down. Our “profit” has decreased to 5 points. Then 4 points. Then 3 points. So far, we’ve “lost” half our “profit”. What do we do? Our stop is still way down there. Do we sell now, forget about the stop, and take at least some profit? By the way, it’s now down to 2.5 points… I feel like the deer, frozen in the headlights of the fast approaching truck!
I would like to actually see a good trader handle that situation. I don’t want the theory or the list of all possible actions at this stage: I want to see what one trader (a successful one, of course) would do. Would he have scaled in? Where, why, how? Would he have trailed his stop? When, how, why, by how much? (All this while recognizing that another trader might have taken a different approach).
In my mind, I’m making an analogy with hockey (I am in Canada!): in a video course entitled “How to play hockey”, I could see static photos of how to lace your skates; another static photo of a player holding a stick; a photo of a player skating; another photo of a player doing a slap shot; another photo of a puck going into the net, etc… All with a good verbal commentary. Etc.
But if I don’t see an actual hockey game, if I don’t see how players skate and shoot and evade other players, how they make a pass, when they do it, etc… I’ll certainly never learn to play hockey! Hockey is movement.
And so is trading!
So, my question: is there any trading example in the course? I mean actual video of trades taking place, stops being placed, profits being taken, positions being increased, partial profits being taken, with a commentary explaining the “why” of the various actions, etc, etc.
Doesn’t have to be actual money trades, I don’t mind if it’s a paper trading account, or in market replay, etc.
After all, there is the word “action” in the title of the course!
P.S. I’m also taking piano lessons. The teacher 1- Demonstrates what he’s going to teach me; 2- Explains the “theory” of what he’s teaching me; 3- Demonstrates once more, slowly, with lots of commentary; 4- Has me try to imitate him.
Thanks! (And please excuse the length...)
No.
Hockey and piano are wrong examples though, they are about physical dexterity, and making it part of your muscle memory, the only physical skill you require for trading is to be able to see and to move your fingers to click on buy/sell, neither of which needs to be learnt 🙂
More apt example would have been chess, and chess can easily be taught in the way Al's course is made.
I'd say that there are videos like what you are asking for in the course. If I remember correctly the last video of scaling in gives 2 strategy example. But since you have posted this question I doubt that that video would satisfy you, because in that video also Al tells you where a trader could have entered, where his stop could have been, where he could have scaled in and where exited... (which he does in a lot of other videos)
Nothing more is required in my experience, what more does it add if al does the exact same thing On a live chart?
What you are asking for is akin to "OK you have told us, what all moves we could have made to save ourselves if we were in this situation in chess, now show us how do you manage such a situation in a live game "
That does not add anything to one's learning, in fact it is worse in a way, because a player would make just one move in a game, and a newbie either consciously or unconsciously learn that THAT is the move to make in that situation..
So even if Al makes a video like this he would do just one thing in that trade and won't be able to talk about 2 different things that he could have done, but on static charts he talks about all the different things that can be done.
What you are asking for is actually how most of the teachers teach and it invariably ends up producing just clones of the teacher.
The course is more about teaching you how to think about the markets, trading and trade management. Its less of 'coloring by numbers'
You can sign up for his trading room, if you want a more dynamic learning environment, but even there Al doesn't show his live trades, he analyzes each bar real time.. There is a free tradingroom video available in the blog, you can check it out to get an idea..
Hey - I have the same question as Shubh though I get the point on "teaching to fish" vs "fishing" 🙂
I'd love to take a look at the trading room video that's on the blog. Could someone please place the link here or point us in that direction?
Hey - I have the same question as Shubh though I get the point on "teaching to fish" vs "fishing" 🙂
I'd love to take a look at the trading room video that's on the blog. Could someone please place the link here or point us in that direction?
There are 2 videos on this site. No need to run off anywhere else. 😎
Scroll down for recent full length video: Day trading room page videos
No.
OK. Thanks.
There was a similar question before.
I assume this is what are you looking for.
https://www.brookstradingcourse.com/support-forum/50-scalping/live-trading-videos/
And, I love the Richard's video in the link.
I assume this is what are you looking for.
https://www.brookstradingcourse.com/support-forum/50-scalping/live-trading-videos/
Hi. Thanks for the suggestion.
However, that link only leads to a mention of an upcoming series of videos; but no videos there, except for the one you pointed out.
And a very good one it is, of Richard trading and taking a scalp in 2018. I absolutely love the way he expresses the emotions he's going through as his trade goes underwater for a while, and takes longer than he expected to develop. How he changes his target. How he finally decides to bring his stop up into profitable territory. I would have several questions to ask!
But I'm really looking for more than one video!
Thanks.
And a very good one it is, of Richard trading and taking a scalp in 2018. I absolutely love the way he expresses the emotions he's going through as his trade goes underwater for a while, and takes longer than he expected to develop. How he changes his target. How he finally decides to bring his stop up into profitable territory. I would have several questions to ask!
But I'm really looking for more than one video!
Thanks.
Haa, me too Michel, lots more. 🤣
I am so busy on support and making videos for BTC site that I am drained by time of market open most days! (I am in Hong Kong so market open is currently 10:30pm.)
I am looking into doing some more live trade videos soon, as promised to Best Trades members so long ago. Can put them on BTC too if Al happy, as I am sure he will be. That 2018 scalp took some time to work out which is always a problem for making videos, but at least real-time.
Thanks for your kind words and support.
(I am in Hong Kong so market open is currently 10:30pm.)
Hi Richard. Thanks for the response.
Must be hard, starting to trade so late in the (normal) day! I have often wondered what it would be like, living elsewhere and having to adapt my schedule to the market’s hours.
You know, I was actually planning to spend all this winter (from October ’20 to about May ’21) in Italy! (Of course, the COVID put a big “X” on those plans!!!) But I had determined that I would be trading in the afternoons there, which would probably be quite agreable.
Best regards.
I am looking into doing some more live trade videos soon, as promised to Best Trades members so long ago. Can put them on BTC too if Al happy, as I am sure he will be. That 2018 scalp took some time to work out which is always a problem for making videos, but at least real-time.
But it doesn’t have to be real-time, Richard! It doesn’t!
Here’s my two-bits on this: pick one or two good setups from the previous week; or tough setups; or bad setups! And run them in MARKET REPLAY! With commentary!
(I LOVE market replay. Every weekend I use it to replay some good/interesting/unusual/difficult setups and try to do better. I’m practicing, in other words. Today, actually, I replayed a beautiful bear trend (“opening reversal”, I think you would call it) that started not long after the open last Friday in Gold (GC). I replayed it three different times, in different timeframes, trying out different strategies. It’s surprising in a way: of course, I knew that there would be a nice bear trend at such a time. That’s not the point. I find that even in market replay, the emotions are there. Fear. And Greed. Isn’t that what the market is about, after all???)
(Sometimes, I also speed up Market Replay. I'll run it at 2X, 3X even 4X normal speed. I feel that helps me spot setups more quickly in real time.)
So that’s one approach.
Here’s some suggestions for topics:
- how to scale in
- how to take partial profits
- how to handle trade size in a good bear (or bull, doesn’t matter) trend
- how to “repair” a trade gone bad
- how to trade in ranges
- etc.
In fact, if you look at the list of topics in the “How to Trade Price Action” section of Al’s course, there is not one topic there that would not benefit immensely from such demonstrations!
One last note in an already too long post: these video demonstrations should not be free! (Free = “it’s not worth anything”). But that’s none of my business!
Take care and good trading!
The course and the books provide tons of examples on how to enter, exit, and manage trades. While they're not live examples they're still very valuable since they provide a framework and ultimately it's up to us to use those concepts to trade correctly. I highly recommend spending a considerable amount of time (several hundred to several thousand hours) in a SIM account learning to apply the principles on your own. Once you've become comfortable with analysis and management move to trading 1-2 micro contracts live before scaling up. That's how I learned and I'm guessing that's how most of the other people who have found success with this information have gone about it. In fact, when I started I only went through 55% of the Price Action Fundamentals portion of the course before testing in SIM to learn by doing. It wasn't until I had put in several hundred hours of experimenting on my own that I started watching the How to Trade portion and other parts of the course. Since I had a lot of experience trying things on my own, getting an idea of what sorts of methods and ideas tend to work and what tends not to, it was easier to assimilate Dr. Brooks' ideas into my mental models. For example, it's one thing to hear Dr. Brooks say that "markets have inertia and 80% of reversal attempts fail" and another thing to enter counter-trend numerous times and logging several losing trades in a row, learning from experience that that's a low probability thing to do. Spending a lot of time trying things and making mistakes on our own is time better spent than watching other people trade since it is our responsibility to make consistently good decisions and the only way to learn how to do so is accumulating our own experience in real time. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, use them to learn and improve.
Spending a lot of time trying things and making mistakes on our own is time better spent than watching other people trade
Gawd... I sure hope our surgeons aren't trained that way!!!
Funny how many people seem to think that learning to trade is different from learning to be a plumber or a musician or a carpenter or an airplane pilot or a midwife, etc.
Sigh...
Spending a lot of time trying things and making mistakes on our own is time better spent than watching other people trade since it is our responsibility to make consistently good decisions and the only way to learn how to do so is accumulating our own experience in real time. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, use them to learn and improve.
That is what I actually said. Nice job cherry picking a part of a sentence to misrepresent the original post though. If you comprehended what I wrote earlier in that post, you'll also notice that I said to do so in a SIM account. The point I was making is that it's important to learn to make decisions independently in a highly dynamic environment. Good trading is good decision making and those vital skills can only be honed through direct experience. I stand by what I wrote, especially considering that thousands of hours spent learning by doing is a large part of why I'm able to trade full time and am comfortable structuring trades in any market environment. In talking to a number of prop traders I know that they also went through much of their training through learning by doing. It's amusing that you're telling people how they should learn to trade when you're a complete novice yourself...
The majority of people want to be given some easy way to do things. Your original post asking to see videos and asking basic questions that you'd find answers to on your own with some trial and error and critical thinking, is representative of why most people who try to trade never make it. Even after Dr. Brooks has presented a tremendous amount of useful material on a silver platter that can be used as a template for decision making, it's still not enough for the intellectually lazy. But those sorts of people, the ones who need to have their hands held and boogers wiped every step of the way, lack the independent thinking and work ethic that's necessary to be good traders anyway so there's no point in trying to cater to them. Those are inevitably the same people who then go on to complain and say that the methods don't work even though they were the ones unwilling to do the work to understand how to apply them in a broad range of market environments. Trading is about synthesizing ideas to make good decisions based on what's happening at the moment in relation to the overall context, not following a recipe.
By the way, pilots do use simulators, so do surgeons, so do many other highly skilled professionals. Musicians call it rehearsal. Athletes call it practice and scrimmaging. And guess what? They make mistakes too, learn from them, and then get it right when it matters because they've had first hand experience dealing with virtually everything they'll encounter. That's how good traders learn too. You're expecting to learn to trade by watching game footage and I'm telling you, based on direct experience, that you need to be spending more time scrimmaging once you have some foundational knowledge. Or don't, what you choose doesn't change my reality either way.
