ForexSpirit

Pretty much all my trading time so far this year has been spent reading, digesting and applying price action that I have gleaned from Price Charts Bar by Bar: The Technical Analysis of Price Action for the Serious Trader by Al Brooks.

This has to be the most densely packed trading book that I’ve ever read. I have had the book for about two months and have made it just past the half way mark. Each page is generally commenting on multiple bars that appear on a chart, showing how a price action setup or concept unfolded. There’s no purple prose promising dreams of riches. Just comments on individual bars and how each bar developed the picture of what a price action trader would see as it happened.

It’s not an easy read. Some even find Mr Brooks’ style to be hard to take, judging by some of the Amazon review comments. I’ve read worse, way worse. That’s not to say that a good copy editor wouldn’t be able to make the book more readable (which would certainly be nice if a second edition is ever considered), just that I have no problems understanding the concepts and descriptions of those concepts that Mr Brooks uses.

If you have concerns about this readability aspect, I would certainly recommend that you preview the book using a service such as Google books. Reading the preface and first chapter should give you a good idea if the writing style is going to drive you crazy or not.

I have been trading off 5 minute EUR/USD charts since early February, looking to only enter higher probability trades and it certainly seems to be paying off so far.

There’s plenty of additional material that Al Brooks has made available, mainly consisting of articles that he wrote for Futures magazine before he published his book, along with some online seminars.

Here’s what I’ve come across, mainly from forum threads on places such as Traders Laboratory and Big Mike’s.

Articles:
Price Action Fundamentals
Failed Flags
Breakouts and Micro Trendlines
Reversals
Price Action Lines
5 Minutes to Fame in the E-mini

Online seminars:
A Month of Great Trades
How to Trade the Market Open
Trading Best Price Action

Last but not least there is Mr Brooks own website, where he posts post market analysis of the S&P E-mini. This is great for taking a look at how Al views things on a day to day basis.

If you have any interest in price action then all of this stuff is well worth checking out.