Yes, I can see how that might happen ā¦
Al Brooks isnāt easy. I see many comments, from many people, in many forums, about the difficulties of applying his teaching.
At the same time, from my own earning-a-living perspective, heās probably the second most important and helpful author whose work Iāve ever looked at.
So thereās a kind of āglaring discrepancyā there, for me, with the good Dr. Brooks, between my own experience and the comments I see made by other people.
It continues to puzzles me slightly, and I do think about it, quite a bit, and discuss it with one friend whoās in exactly the same position as me, with this issue.
I attribute it largely to a mixture of the following factors, in some (unknown and perhaps variable) proportions ā¦
(i) Al Brooksā books are undeniably badly edited and their contents (outstanding material though it is) are not always presented in the most convenient arrangements and with the most convenient structure for the reader;
(ii) Although - as he rightly says himself - all the material [I]is[/I] applicable to forex, paying the kind of spreads that counterparty market-maker ābrokersā charge is certainly imposing an additional handicap (I had no problems at Interactive Brokers, paying a commission-per-trade instead of spread);
(iii) People quite often donāt appreciate that these arenāt really āscalping techniquesā,[I] per se[/I], and itās equally possible to trade them from slower-moving charts, with which the dealing-costs arenāt nearly so significant a factor;
(iv) The books are āheavy goingā and most people need to read them all at least two or three times to get everything out of them (I think they give many people that āVery good, Mozart, but too many notesā feeling! );
(v) He doesnāt provide āa complete trading systemā to copy, which many people want in preference to āeducationā;
I do, however, feel strongly that his books are very much [I]The Real Thing[/I] - and Iām not even sure Iād be making a living at all, without them.