Background
Al Brooks is a former ophthalmologist turned full-time trader who wrote the definitive trilogy on price action trading. His four books (three on reading price action, one on trading ranges/trends/reversals) total over 2,000 pages of bar-by-bar analysis. He is considered the most detailed pure price action analyst in trading education, though his writing style is notoriously dense.
Core Methodology
Brooks reads every individual bar on a 5-minute Emini S&P 500 chart, classifying each as a signal bar, entry bar, or context bar within the broader market structure. His framework classifies every market moment as either a trend (always-in long or short) or a trading range, with specific rules for each. The goal: determine the 'always-in' direction and trade with it, or identify when the market is in a range and fade the extremes.
Key Trading Rules
- Determine the 'Always-In' direction — if forced to be in the market, would you be long or short right now?
- In trends: buy pullbacks to the EMA, sell rallies to the EMA. Look for signal bars (reversal candles) at the EMA
- In trading ranges: fade the extremes — sell near the top, buy near the bottom
- Signal bar requirements: must close in the direction of the trade, body should be at least 50% of the bar
- Entry on the break of the signal bar (buy stop 1 tick above for longs, sell stop 1 tick below for shorts)
- Risk: height of the signal bar. Target: measured move (1:1 initially, then trail for trends)
Key Concepts
Books & Resources
Trading Price Action Trends by Al Brooks. Trading Price Action Trading Ranges by Al Brooks. Trading Price Action Reversals by Al Brooks. Al Brooks' course on BrooksTradingCourse.com.