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

by Al Brooks

Overview

Praise for Trading Price Action Trading Ranges

"Al Brooks has written a book every day trader should read. On all levels, he has kept trading simple, straightforward, and approachable. By teaching traders that there are no rules, just guidelines, he has allowed basic common sense to once again rule how real traders should approach the market. This is a must-read for any trader that wants to learn his own path to success."
—Noble DraKoln, founder, SpeculatorAcademy.com, and author of Trade Like a Pro and Winning the Trading Game

"A great trader once told me that success was a function of focused energy. This mantra is proven by Al Brooks, who left a thriving ophthalmology practice to become a day trader. Al's intense focus on daily price action has made him a successful trader. A born educator, Al also is generous with his time, providing detailed explanations on how he views daily price action and how other traders can implement his ideas with similar focus and dedication. Al's book is no quick read, but an in-depth road map on how he trades today's volatile markets, complete with detailed strategies, real-life examples, and hard-knocks advice."
—Ginger Szala, Publisher and Editorial Director, Futures magazine

Over the course of his career, author Al Brooks, a technical analysis contributor to Futures magazine and an independent trader for twenty-five years, has found a way to capture consistent profits regardless of market direction or economic climate. And now, with his new three-book series—which focuses on how to use price action to trade the markets—Brooks takes you step by step through the entire process.

In order to put his methodology in perspective, Brooks examined an essential array of price action basics and trends in the first book of this series, Trading Price Action TRENDS. Now, in this second book, Trading Price Action TRADING RANGES, he provides important insights on trading ranges, breakouts, order management, and the mathematics of trading.

Page by page, Brooks skillfully addresses how to spot and profit from trading ranges—which most markets are in, most of the time—using the technical analysis of price action. Along the way, he touches on some of the most important aspects of this approach, including trading breakouts, understanding support and resistance, and making the most informed entry and exit decisions possible. Throughout the book, Brooks focuses primarily on 5 minute candle charts—all of which are created with TradeStation—to illustrate basic principles, but also discusses daily and weekly charts. And since he trades more than just E-mini S&P 500 futures, Brooks also details how price action can be used as the basis for trading stocks, forex, Treasury Note futures, and options.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118066676
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	01/03/2012
Series:	Wiley Trading , #521
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	624
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Al Brooks is a technical analysis contributor for Futures magazine and an independent day trader. His approach to reading price charts was developed over two decades in which he changed careers from ophthalmology to trading. Brooks graduated from The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1978 and received a BS in mathematics with honors from Trinity College in 1974. His website, brookspriceaction.com, outlines his trading approach and views as well as hosts a subscription-based daily trading chat room in which Brooks talks with other traders about the market.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

List of Terms Used in This Book xiii

Introduction 1

PART I Breakouts: Transitioning into a New Trend 35

CHAPTER 1 Example of How to Trade a Breakout 53

CHAPTER 2 Signs of Strength in a Breakout 61

CHAPTER 3 Initial Breakout 81

CHAPTER 4 Breakout Entries in Existing Strong Trends 91

CHAPTER 5 Failed Breakouts, Breakout Pullbacks, and Breakout Tests 99

CHAPTER 6 Gaps 119

PART II Magnets: Support and Resistance 139

CHAPTER 7 Measured Moves Based on the Size of the First Leg (the Spike) 153

CHAPTER 8 Measured Moves Based on Gaps and Trading Ranges 165

CHAPTER 9 Reversals Often End at Signal Bars from Prior Failed Reversals 175

CHAPTER 10 Other Magnets 179

PART III Pullbacks: Trends Converting to Trading Ranges 183

CHAPTER 11 First Pullback Sequence: Bar, Minor Trend Line, Moving Average, Moving Average Gap, Major Trend Line 205

CHAPTER 12 Double Top Bear Flags and Double Bottom Bull Flags 213

CHAPTER 13 Twenty Gap Bars 233

CHAPTER 14 First Moving Average Gap Bars 239

CHAPTER 15 Key Inflection Times of the Day That Set Up Breakouts and Reversals 245

CHAPTER 16 Counting the Legs of Trends and Trading Ranges 253

CHAPTER 17 Bar Counting: High and Low 1, 2, 3, and 4 Patterns and ABC Corrections 259

CHAPTER 18 Wedge and Other Three-Push Pullbacks 301

CHAPTER 19 Dueling Lines: Wedge Pullback to the Trend Line 313

CHAPTER 20 "Reversal" Patterns: Double Tops and Bottoms and Head and Shoulders Tops and Bottoms 319

PART IV Trading Ranges 327

CHAPTER 21 Example of How to Trade a Trading Range 367

CHAPTER 22 Tight Trading Ranges 377

CHAPTER 23 Triangles 411

PART V Orders and Trade Management 417

CHAPTER 24 Scalping, Swinging, Trading, and Investing 419

CHAPTER 25 Mathematics of Trading: Should I Take This Trade? Will I Make Money If I Take This Trade? 437

CHAPTER 26 Need Two Reasons to Take a Trade 481

CHAPTER 27 Entering on Stops 491

CHAPTER 28 Entering on Limits 493

CHAPTER 29 Protective and Trailing Stops 517

CHAPTER 30 Profit Taking and Profit Targets 535

CHAPTER 31 Scaling Into and Out of a Trade 543

CHAPTER 32 Getting Trapped In or Out of a Trade 567

About the Author 571

About the Website 573

Index 575