Trading Price Action Reversals: Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader 1st Edition

Firstly, this book is NOT a 2nd edition of Dr. Brooks' first book, as was stated in a previous review. This book is the last installment in a 3 volume release from the author, and this book's Part 1, delivers a deep and detailed treatment of trading reversal setups. The prior two books (of this three volume release) addresses trading Trends and Trading Ranges respectively. Dr. Brooks' undisputed standing as the `Traders Author' gives this book a pedigree that is hard to beat. In this book he delivers eye-opening, seldom shared detail as he teaches the art of evaluating, entering and managing Reversal price action set-ups.It would not surprise me if there were traders/readers that find this depth of coverage a little overwhelming. If you are looking for a drive-thru experience, my guess is there are many books better suited for that `wham-bam-thank-you-for-giving-me-nothing-I-can-really-use-ma'am' depth of coverage, and speed of read. Perhaps the slew of con-artists selling their no-miss, no-think, no-work from you training packages have duped us into thinking that education and entertainment are the same, and that material should be characterized by PowerPoint type delivery of charts with simple to digest bullet points at the bottom. The standard by which books of this nature are measured should be the real world usability of its content and the clarity of the explanations and not how effortless and quick a read the material is. If this or any book helps me to take on some of the best academically trained, behaviorally-disciplined and infrastructurally well-armed adversaries in the world, and beat them, and it does, then any effort is worth it. Stop dreaming, your adversaries are out to take your lunch, and Dr. Brooks amazing wealth of knowledge which he shares in this book for $45, is a godsend. Do not be discouraged by comments of 'excessive detail' and instead, devour every morsel of the immense experience of one of the most technically astute and disciplined trading masters willing to divulge what he actually does. Decades of experience are distilled into well-structured opening discussions in each chapter, followed by charts and further explanations allowing the reader to see how a real-world trading master puts this theory into practice. And IF it gets `wordy', what do you expect, he is covering 30 years of knowledge.As I said before, the book is well structured, first presenting the reader with both a list of, and detailed discussions of the attributes of strong reversals. This is cleverly done in isolation from any one chart pattern, allowing the reader to fully grasp this material. With that done, the reader is then taken through each major `price action scenario' (classic chart pattern) in which reversal set-ups occur, which he covers starting from chapter 3 through to chapter 10.Again this is the 3rd of three books, and having completed Reversals (in Part 1), the author moves onto consolidating this material with those strategies covered in the first two books, viz Trends and Trading Ranges, into what can broadly be referenced as `Putting It All Together' (although this is specifically what he called Part 4).Yes, there is an immense amount of seldom shared insight and detail, and if some things get repeated as he discusses chart after chart in its entirety, forcing the reader of reaffirm previously covered material, strengthening understanding, while being guided through newer concepts...damn that goose for laying more than one golden egg !!! (apologies Dr. Brooks, I was speaking metaphorically of course ').

I've read Al Brooks' book called Trading Price Action Reversals, and it is easily the most detailed book that I've read on the topic of reading price action. This is not an easy read on the subject of price action, and it is a PhD level dissertation on the topic. The book is so detailed, just like the Trading Ranges and the Trends books, and it will be slow and clumsy to read, so take your time. It could easily take a month to read this book, but it will explain so much that it will pay for itself almost immediately. I do have some pointers on how to streamline the reading process (and it IS a process with Al Brooks' books!).1) Get a highlighter pen and highlight tips and observations, but not individual chart information. For example, on page 137 you should highlight, "Spikes are tests of the strength of both the trend and countertrend traders", but do not highlight "In Figure 4.8, the bar 1, bar3, and bar 6 bear spikes...". If you were to highlight the detailed information from each chart you would go crazy and the books would be a coloring book filled with bright yellow highlighter pen, and you could go blind from that!!2) Study the SPY/ES charts, and review Al Brooks' videos on YouTube.3) Trade and review each setup on the chart. After reading any of Al Brooks' material, put the book down for a month, and then re-read it. This time just read the highlighted portions of the book. The book will be far more easily understood after you study SPY/ES charts and then pick up the book for a second time.4) After reading and highlighting Al Brooks' book, you should then print out charts that you will likely trade. To study the charts, print them at random. For me, I trade the SPY, so I printed out random SPY charts from the last two years, and I printed out 2-Day charts with 5 Minute candles. You'll want to print out two day charts, since the previous day's price action influences the current trading day's price action.5) Once you have a pile of 2-Day 5 Minute candle charts, cover up the second day with a sheet of paper so that you can't see it. Slowly move the sheet of paper to view each candle, one at a time, like you would see the trading day unfolding in real-time. Now verbalize each bar that you slowly expose, and write down your observations about each candle. Draw trend lines, wedges, and failed final flags as they are exposed by moving the paper slowly to the right. Draw long and short entries and stops, and record your results. This could take a while detailing what you see on each candle, but that will change the better you get. It took me 2 hours to get through my first chart like this. Do one of these each day. Don't worry, it gets faster!!6) Review your detailed chart observations. You'll be amazed how much data you can pull out of each candle. Save your charts and your data, and pretty soon you'll have a whole pile of your own data and trade setups, Al Brooks style.My only real complaint about the book is that you don't get an independent diagram about what a failed final flag failure looks like, and it took a while to be able to visualize that pattern, and a few others.I've been trading the stock market since 1987, and these books answered a lot of questions right away, and helped my trading immensely. Reading price action has never been easier!Other resources you might want to consider would be Gap Edge Trading, as I made plenty of money trading in their chat room, and so have a lot of other people.Good luck and nail some reversals!!