{"id":37756,"date":"2015-04-10T05:37:06","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T12:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brookstradingcourse.com\/?p=37756"},"modified":"2020-09-13T08:05:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T15:05:53","slug":"how-long-before-consistently-profitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/ask-al\/how-long-before-consistently-profitable\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Al: How long before consistently profitable?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">BPA trading room Q&amp;A: February 11, 2015<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"content-box-green\">How long did it take you to become consistently profitable after you started trading?<br><em>Audio duration: 5min 28sec \u2014 Scroll down for images<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/150410-ask-al-how-long-before-profitable.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Audio transcript<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I lost money for probably 10 years, and my problem was \u2013 it wasn\u2019t that I was not smart enough; it was probably that I was too smart. I kept studying everything, reading all these books, reading all these magazines, listening to people on television, and accepting what they were saying was true, and I had problems with all of it. It just didn\u2019t make sense to me, like divergences with, indicators and moving averages &#8211; waiting for moving average crosses. I\u2019d look at the markets and I\u2019d say, \u201cWait a minute, what they\u2019re saying, it doesn\u2019t make sense. Markets are doing the opposite of what they\u2019re saying. You know, I have divergences on&nbsp;stochastics at the market top, the market keeps going up most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-sell-off.png\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-sell-off-300x281.png\" alt=\"es-chart-sell-off\" class=\"wp-image-37767\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-sell-off-300x281.png 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-sell-off.png 586w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>So anyway, it took me a long time to get the confidence to say, \u201cI\u2019m not going to listen to anyone.\u201d And what I decided to do was go back to basics. I got rid of everything on the chart; all the indicators, even the moving averages, and I just looked at bars, and I began to look for patterns, and I began to see a lot of patterns. I also did probably 10,000 hours of back testing of all kinds of trading ideas, so I started getting confidence in doing what I thought was right, even if it appeared to be wrong. So when I see this big sell-off, I\u2019m starting to look to buy, and when I see this, I\u2019m definitely buying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So there were a whole bunch of things that I started seeing happening time and time again that were pretty much the opposite of what I was reading about and what I was seeing on television; I decided to just throw away everything that I had spent so many years to learn and I just became a purist, a price action purist. Obviously, one of the reasons why I\u2019m talking in the webinar, one of the reasons why I write books, and articles, and videos is, you know, I don\u2019t want other people to go through all the garbage that I had to go through to get to where I am. And that goes back to my childhood. I grew up poor. There was six of us in a thousand-square-foot house with one bathroom and no shower. I wanted to go to Harvard; didn\u2019t get into Harvard. Back then, in the \u201860s, they weren\u2019t taking very many poor kids, especially \u2013 so I didn\u2019t get in and I always felt kind of shut out and I always felt like it was hard to get ahead. And once I did get ahead, I\u2019ve been trying really hard to help people, and I help my kids, and my fianc\u00e9\u2019s kids, and they\u2019re all doing great \u2013 and I like it; it makes me feel good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-in-pram-1953-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"Al-brooks-in-pram-1953\" data-id=\"37788\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-in-pram-1953.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/al-brooks-in-pram-1953\/\" class=\"wp-image-37788\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-in-pram-1953-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-in-pram-1953-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-in-pram-1953.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-as-kid-1957-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"Al-brooks-as-kid-1957\" data-id=\"37787\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-as-kid-1957.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/al-brooks-as-kid-1957\/\" class=\"wp-image-37787\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-as-kid-1957-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-as-kid-1957-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-as-kid-1957.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-as-kid-1955-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"Al-brooks-as-kid-1955\" data-id=\"37786\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-as-kid-1955.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/al-brooks-as-kid-1955\/\" class=\"wp-image-37786\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-as-kid-1955-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-as-kid-1955-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-as-kid-1955.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-siblings-1960-600x391.png\" alt=\"Al-brooks-siblings-1960\" data-id=\"37785\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-siblings-1960.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/al-brooks-siblings-1960\/\" class=\"wp-image-37785\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-siblings-1960-600x391.png 600w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-siblings-1960-300x195.png 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-siblings-1960.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"481\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-family-1960-600x481.jpg\" alt=\"Al-brooks-family-1960\" data-id=\"37784\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-family-1960.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/al-brooks-family-1960\/\" class=\"wp-image-37784\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-family-1960-600x481.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-family-1960-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Al-brooks-family-1960.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I think back to when I was a kid and I didn\u2019t have the help that I needed at the time to do what I wanted to do, so now I try to help people. I\u2019m hoping that people do not need 10 years to figure it out. Also, what I\u2019m saying, if you just listen to what I say and look at the charts, you say, \u201cYeah, what he\u2019s saying is right. That\u2019s what the charts are doing. That\u2019s what the traders are doing; that\u2019s what the computers are doing. So, in a way, it gives you an opportunity to become profitable in a lot less time than 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-going-on-with-bears.png\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"282\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-going-on-with-bears-300x282.png\" alt=\"es-chart-whats-going-on-with-bears\" class=\"wp-image-37769\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-going-on-with-bears-300x282.png 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-going-on-with-bears.png 582w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>For me, that was my path. I know a lot of traders who have studied my stuff, my ideas, have become extremely profitable in much less time. It is kind of a short cut, but it takes a lot of work. And a lot of it \u2013 most traders are never going to see. All of the stuff that I\u2019m explaining down here about what\u2019s going on with the bears, most traders at Goldman Sachs have no clue about what I\u2019m talking about. But what I\u2019m saying is real, and it\u2019s very real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-bar-39-sell-go-for-walk.png\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"279\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-bar-39-sell-go-for-walk-300x279.png\" alt=\"es-chart-bar-39-sell-go-for-walk\" class=\"wp-image-37771\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-bar-39-sell-go-for-walk-300x279.png 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-bar-39-sell-go-for-walk.png 585w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>You don\u2019t need to know it to be a profitable trader, but if you do know it, the more little things like that that you know &#8211; the more opportunities, the more trades you\u2019ll see during the day. On an average day on the five-minute chart, I\u2019d probably see 40 or 50 trades on the five-minute chart. They\u2019re just all over the place, but you have to understand price action to see them. Some of them you don\u2019t really need. Bar 39, you just sell and go for a walk, come back in a half hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-bar-54-buy-and-go-for-walk.png\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"282\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-bar-54-buy-and-go-for-walk-300x282.png\" alt=\"es-chart-bar-54-buy-and-go-for-walk\" class=\"wp-image-37773\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-bar-54-buy-and-go-for-walk-300x282.png 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-bar-54-buy-and-go-for-walk.png 585w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Bar 54, you just buy, go for a walk, come back in a half hour. And you can do very well. So here (bar 39) you sell, you put a stop above here and place a limit order to buy 4 points lower. Here (bar 54), you buy anywhere; you buy the high of the bar, the close of the bar, and you walk away, come back, a half hour later, have a limit order to take profits at four points. And on those two trades alone, you make eight points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you don\u2019t need to see 40 trades a day to make money, but when you DO see a trade, you need to take the trade. And you don\u2019t even have to take every one, you don\u2019t even have to take half of them, as long as you don\u2019t take the dumb stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-ttr-amateurs-fly-traps.png\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"279\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-ttr-amateurs-fly-traps-300x279.png\" alt=\"es-chart-ttr-amateurs-fly-traps\" class=\"wp-image-37792\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-ttr-amateurs-fly-traps-300x279.png 300w, https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/es-chart-ttr-amateurs-fly-traps.png 583w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>And one of the things beginners do &#8211; it\u2019s like flies being drawn to those fly-zapping lights. When beginners see this, they say, \u201cOh, thank goodness; the market\u2019s getting quiet so it\u2019s safer to trade.\u201d Well, yes, the bars are smaller so the risk is less, however the probability is less as well, and entering with stops when the market looks like this is deadly. So for a lot of traders, this is where they start trading. And they start entering with stops using protective stops that are too tight and they lose money. And I make that point all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re entering with stops in a tight trading range, you have to use a swing stop. That\u2019s the only way you have a chance to make any money. And you can scalp using a swing stop, especially if you\u2019re scaling in, but you cannot look at this and say, \u201cOh gosh, finally it\u2019s not scary. I can finally sell or buy. I\u2019ll use a tight stop because I don\u2019t want to risk anything.\u201d No, you can\u2019t do that, right? That\u2019s not what the market is calling for. You have to use the appropriate stop. If you\u2019re too uncomfortable using the appropriate stop, you have to trade much smaller or you have to wait for a different trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Al Brooks<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a title=\"Al Brooks' trading room\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/online-day-trading-room\/\">Information on Al&#8217;s Online day trading room<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BPA trading room Q&amp;A: February 11, 2015 How long did it take you to become consistently profitable after you started trading?Audio duration: 5min 28sec \u2014 Scroll down for images Audio transcript I lost money for probably 10 years, and my problem was \u2013 it wasn\u2019t that I was not smart enough; it was probably that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ask-al","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail","9":"override"},"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"BTC Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/author\/richardhk\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookstradingcourse.com\/pt-br\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}