Trading Price Action Trends: Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader
Book Details
- Author: Al Brooks
- Categories: Technical Analysis, Price Action, Day Trading
Quick Summary
Al Brooks delivers an exhaustive bar-by-bar analysis of price action in trending markets, teaching serious traders to read price charts without indicators by interpreting every bar's relationship to context, with a focus on identifying, entering, and managing trades within trending price action.
Detailed Summary
"Trading Price Action Trends" by Al Brooks, published by John Wiley & Sons in 2012 (building on his 2009 first edition titled "Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar"), is the first volume in Brooks's three-part series on price action trading. The book represents one of the most granular and detailed treatments of price chart interpretation ever published, with nearly 480 pages dedicated exclusively to trending price action.
Brooks's methodology is notable for its explicit rejection of technical indicators. He argues that all the information contained in any indicator is already visible in the price bars themselves, and that the intermediate step of processing price into an indicator formula actually destroys information. Instead, Brooks teaches traders to read every individual price bar in the context of the bars surrounding it, the broader market structure, and the likely behavior of institutional participants.
The book covers the identification of trends at multiple time frames, from five-minute intraday charts through daily and weekly charts. Brooks defines trends through his own framework of higher highs and higher lows (for bull trends) or lower highs and lower lows (for bear trends), but extends this basic concept into nuanced analysis of trend strength, trend exhaustion, and the transitions between trending and non-trending (trading range) phases.
Entry techniques in trends are dissected in exhaustive detail. Brooks covers buying pullbacks in bull trends and selling rallies in bear trends, with specific criteria for distinguishing pullbacks that are likely to lead to trend continuation from those that signal trend reversal. He analyzes breakouts -- the initial moves that establish or resume trends -- including the characteristics that distinguish successful breakouts from failed ones.
Trade management within trends receives equally detailed treatment, including scaling into positions, adjusting stops based on developing price action, identifying measured move targets, and recognizing when trend-following trades should be exited as the trend shows signs of exhaustion. All charts in the book were created with TradeStation, and the analysis is applied across multiple markets and time frames.
Brooks's writing style is dense and demanding, reflecting his belief that successful price action trading requires deep engagement with the material rather than simplified rules. The book is intended for experienced traders willing to invest substantial study time in developing the ability to read price action with institutional-level proficiency.
