The support forum is built with (1) General and FAQ forums for common trading queries received from aspiring and experienced traders, and (2) forums for course video topics. How to Trade Price Action and How to Trade Forex Price Action videos are consolidated into common forums.
Brooks Trading Course social media communities
Hi Everyone,
I have been on a decent losing streak lately - tracking my trades, I am around 30-35% win rate, but average losers are 1/3rd to 1/2x greater.
Was wondering what other traders have done to get out of a rut? Additionally, I am a beginner and have not been able to become consistently profitable yet; so I was wondering what recommendations/advice would you all have to start taking correct steps forward?
Just to avoid some recommendations I know would probably get mentioned, here are some things I am currently doing, or have taken into consideration already:
1. Currently trading 1 MES contract, the smallest position size available to take all emotion out of the trades.
2. I am being more patient with finding higher quality setups, but still seem to get stopped out or close out negative and then it goes in my favor. But, if I don't close out early my max stop just gets hit.
3. I keep a journal of my days trades. Though I think this may be effecting me negatively as its a slap in the face every-time I look and see negative days every single day. I use to be much more consistently profitable, but would have one or two losing trades that would wipe out all the winners. Now, I lose all the time (whether big or small) and have no consistency.
4. I have a max stop loss for the days session and once its reached I stop trading. I do not overtrade (no more than 5 trades a day).
5. I study everyday - I understand it will take time, practice, and effort. This includes study the BTC, trading the day session M-F, analyze each days trades after the session, watch Al's webinars on the days sessions that are available.
>>#5 is the one that I think is really getting to me because I do put so much time and effort into trading and have a passion for it but am doing worse than I ever have now. The next step I am thinking for myself is just to back test as much as possible to prove out a winning percentage that would give me an edge, but this has been hard as a discretionary trader tracking the exact rules/metrics for any given trade.
Really appreciate anyone's insight and/or advice. I know I will never give up, but am just feeling very discouraged lately. I may take a week or so break to study and back test and then start live trading again just to mentally regroup.
Keep your head up and make sure you do the little things
Market Cycle starts my thought process
Channels drawn on all charts-only trade in that direction
Those chart patterns work!!!! I love Triangles now. Double top and bottom Wedge Bottom and top
Ema’s 20 + 60 speak their own language—LISTEN
Support and Resistance must be on your chart. For fun, the wife and I watch how prices react around Support and Resistance Levels
Avoid counter trend trading
Have a Reason or 3 for Every trade taken
Do Al’s practice suggestions like it is your religion (( It helped me grow into a confident trader, very sure in my chart reading))
STUDY THE LANGUAGE OF THE BARS
STUDY BUYING OR SELLING PRESSURE
Remember this: 1 point per day is all you need when you size up your trades and when you acquire pro Skills
1 Point x 10 Contracts=$100k Yearly
Also if you Really want to be a Trader, do not tire of the Chase
Dr. Brooks says that the only way to be good at trading is to put in the hours and do the hard Dirty work of learning how to trade
You can do it. I would bet money on you
Also when I first started, I was so lost it was beyond explanation
18 months later, with 100% complete devotion to trading, 16 hours daily during the pandemic, I feel excited about each trading day
I had a day recently I recorded over 100 points
That’s the Power of Dr. Brooks teaching when you apply them and can execute them in real time
Keep grinding and Never give up
Thank you for the response, Lionel! Hearing some positivity and reassurance is refreshing haha
Do Al’s practice suggestions like it is your religion (( It helped me grow into a confident trader, very sure in my chart reading))
Could you please elaborate on these suggestions? Are you referring to the marking up of your chart at the end of each session? If so, any additional good practices to follow?
18 months later, with 100% complete devotion to trading, 16 hours daily during the pandemic, I feel excited about each trading day
What were some of the things you did for the 16hrs a day to better yourself and craft to get to the point you are now w/ confidence & consistency?
Again, appreciate the positive response and look forward to your clarifications.
I must have listened to Al’s lessons in the online courses 10 times each. Minimum
You would not believe what you miss by reviewing the material repeatedly.
Any Al Brooks YouTube training I have heard it and studied it.
I also taught myself how to learn from Dr Brooks. If your mind wanders while he’s talking, I promise you that you will miss something important.
Also I have a Trading chart library with over 2000 self created charts on different trading topics and Nuggets of Wisdom I learned from Al, and other traders that I admire
I also started my own self study program on pure price action: 5 Min chart divided into 15 second bars
15 Min Chart divided into 30 second bars
60 minute bars divided into 1 Min bars
I just want to understand how price moves
I also look at and trade other markets to make myself better. (1st with my Sim account then much later I traded very small positions. The goal is to be a well rounded, well informed trader that can trade any chart, any time frame, anywhere.
I know for a fact that there are other Brooks price Action traders that are more advanced than me but I feel that I make a bit of progress daily.
I also have a wife that patiently allows me to explain the E mini chart every evening for 5 or 10 minutes to improve our understanding and skills
There is a prop trading firm that says that it takes 10,000 hours to make a superstar trader
Al Brooks says that he studied over 10,000 hours just on trading ideas that he doesn’t use on a daily basis
Remember that this is a process that cannot be rushed, hurried, pushed.
You must do your time and due diligence. The goal is to continue studying until you start having AHA moments. Then you will start putting all your knowledge together in pieces that will make you better
I also use NT - was wondering how you got the Current Day OHL & Prior Day OHLC indicators? Also, is the 220 EMA suppose to enact as the 60min MA?
How do you divide the charts into smaller time frame bars (i.e. 5min chart, 15sec bars)?
Thank you for your insight. It has been an inspiration to me and I will continue to study longer, harder, and put in the work!
Forgive me but just 1 more thing.
Examine every trade you take like a Marine Corp drill instructor and don’t be afraid to criticize, critique, and analyze your work.
Did you look at the Context? Context analysis will keep you out of dumb trades
in fact, to be a good trader means that your skills prevent you from taking some trades, more than always having a position
Al calls it the bank security guard syndrome: Standing around for years waiting until all of a sudden you have to spring into action.
That’s trading waiting for the best opportunities
You nailed it on the Ema’s
The 2 indicators are in the indicator tab on Ninja. You just have to adjust the colors and styles
In order to examine price action like I do just put the 5 Min chart 1st, then put the 15 second or 30 second in the same panel/window
Then make sure they are in index futures RTH
STUDY THE LANGUAGE OF THE BARS
STUDY BUYING OR SELLING PRESSURE
Dr. Brooks says that the only way to be good at trading is to put in the hours and do the hard Dirty work of learning how to trade
Remember that this is a process that cannot be rushed, hurried, pushed.
Lionel shared some very good insights in this thread, but I just wanted to highlight these three because, to me, they are of UTTER importance and are very easily skipped by traders.
Trying to find the perfect setup is waaay more interesting than these points, but I'd bet that the majority (if not all) of the consistent traders would give these points a higher importance than developing the "perfect setup" (which does not exist, no matter how hard you try to find it).
Keep your head up and make sure you do the little things
Market Cycle starts my thought process
Channels drawn on all charts-only trade in that direction
Those chart patterns work!!!! I love Triangles now. Double top and bottom Wedge Bottom and top
Ema’s 20 + 60 speak their own language—LISTEN
Support and Resistance must be on your chart. For fun, the wife and I watch how prices react around Support and Resistance Levels
Avoid counter trend trading
Have a Reason or 3 for Every trade taken
Do Al’s practice suggestions like it is your religion (( It helped me grow into a confident trader, very sure in my chart reading))
STUDY THE LANGUAGE OF THE BARS
STUDY BUYING OR SELLING PRESSURE
Remember this: 1 point per day is all you need when you size up your trades and when you acquire pro Skills
1 Point x 10 Contracts=$100k Yearly
Also if you Really want to be a Trader, do not tire of the Chase
Dr. Brooks says that the only way to be good at trading is to put in the hours and do the hard Dirty work of learning how to trade
You can do it. I would bet money on you
Hello Lionel Johnson,
Can you please provide an example of counter trend trading please?
What is counter trend trading?
Thanks
When I first started, I had the tendency to fight the dominant trend.
Getting long in a downtrend.
Trying to get in early, being short in a Small Pullback Bull trend.
Ignoring context. Never drawing channels
Ignoring the phases of market cycle. What I didn’t realize was each type of market cycle requires different entries and thought process.
Once I got it through my thick head that it would be easier to make money just going with the flow(( the dominant trend )) my trading improved quickly.
Dr Brooks Market Cycle lessons was so powerful that I try to watch them monthly.
On a positive note, I did learn how to scale in from taking dumb against the trend trades
I find buying ànd selling pressure is reliably indicated by a MACD using a 362 setting. This also is closely correlated with Al's marked swing entries he posts each day.
Why do i say this? Because, for 5min swing trading, if you're lazy and dont want to read the bar-by-bar price action as closely as Al, it gets you pretty close, then your main efforts are on such things as whether you need to early exit in a prolonged trading range, etc.
Question, what online videos are you referring to when you say Study the language of the bars?
