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Tharp's Thoughts
Weekly Newsletter
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Feature: The Only Program I Know of That Gives You More Freedom, Happiness for No Reason, and More Success Just by Completing It
by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.
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Workshops: June & July Workshops That Qualify You To Apply for The Super Trader Program
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Tips: Finally — A Vote for “Status Quo” in the EU
by D. R. Barton, Jr.
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Quiz: New Intra Day Quiz, by Dr. Ken Long
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3 Peak Performance Workshops This June!
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The Only Program I Know of That Gives You More Freedom, Happiness for No Reason, and More Success Just by Completing It
by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.
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I’ve always wanted to know how we work. What makes us tick? Also, if someone can do something well, how can I or anyone else also do it well? To find the answer I earned an undergraduate degree in psychology and a doctorate in biological psychology, but that wasn’t enough.
I’ve also pursued the Avatar program, and attended the Wizards Course - twice. I’ve taken courses in the Lifespring series, including their advanced program. I’ve learned through Dynamism (an offspring of Scientology but without the cult) as recommended by Robert Kiyosaki. I went through Dynamism clearings until I was pronounced a spiritual master. I’ve participated in meditation and spiritual courses too numerous to count. However, through all of this, I found the key to being able to achieve my objectives was by taking many, many, many NLP courses to learn how to model success. In the process, I’ve learned four different ways to model including; 1) Micro strategies through David Gordon and Richard Bandler; 2) Robert Dilts’ NLP Unified Field Theory and his current Success
Factor Modeling Program; 3) Dr. Michael Hall’s Neurosemantics Program; and mostly importantly, 4) Dr. Wyatt Woodsmall’s program in Advanced Modeling.
As a subset of these modeling strategies, I’ve learned about many, many modeling projects:
- Wyatt Woodsmall (with Tony Robbins assisting) modeling the best rifle shooters in the world for the US Army.
- Robert Dilts’ work on the strategies of various geniuses, including Walt Disney’s creative genius strategy which has become famous in the NLP community.
- Richard Bandler on the therapeutic techniques of Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls, and Milton Erickson. These formed the basis for the metamodel and the Milton Model used in NLP.
- Richard Bandler on the Spelling Bee strategy.
- L. Michael Hall on developing resilience.
- Bobby Bodenhamer on modeling how to cure stuttering.
The list goes on, but all of these are small projects. I know of only three large scale modeling projects. The first was Robert Dilts on leadership. That project was described in his book on modeling and is the focus of his current books and workshops entitled Success Factor Modeling.
The second is L. Michael Hall’s project on developing Metacoaches, those who act as coaches in his neurosemantic program. Dr. Hall has written 15 books that cover the material in the program. He has also developed an extensive program to produce and certify Metacoaches.
And the third project is my own work on modeling successful trading and investing. At one point, I thought I had some competition from an NLP trainer who was featured in the psychological chapter in The New Market Wizards. However, I listened to some training tapes in which this trainer describes his modeling work with Richard Dennis. He said he subscribed to a magazine for a year and read a monthly column written by Richard Dennis for a year. Then he attended a talk that Richard gave, sitting in the front row and in ten minutes, he had it down — he knew all of Richard Dennis’ metaprograms. Then he said he had to apply his own convincer strategy to convince himself that he could trade futures like Richard Dennis. I’m telling you this because I couldn’t believe it when I heard
it. A successful trader’s metaprograms have nothing to do with trading success and by assuming that they did, he showed two things — he was naïve thinking he could trade successfully on his limited information and he simply didn’t know how to model success.
I use most of the modeling techniques available, but for a long time I just used Wyatt Woodsmall’s advanced modeling technique. In brief, if you want to model a complex project, you need to find a number of successful people who do the task well. One person alone will not be enough. When you model one person, all you get is the person’s idiosyncrasies and most of that person’s metaprograms, for example, will be idiosyncrasies, not the keys to success. For example, good traders tend to be NTJs (these are personality facets from the Myers Briggs test and they are also metaprograms), but simply having those qualities will not make you a successful trader.
In addition, you need to be careful about your models. For example, I always look for models who live successful and well-balanced lives. Once, I spent two days with one of the Market Wizards who was convinced that anger was the basis for his success. The last thing I want to do, however, was produce angry people, even if they could trade well.
Instead, you need to find the things that successful people, leading well-balanced lives, all do in common. For example, all successful traders go through some kind of daily trading process. Next, you would need to find the common tasks that they all do as a part of their daily process. Our research in this area has produced what we now refer to as The Top Tasks of Trading. Going further, for each task, you need to find three key ingredients: the key beliefs; the optimal mental states for performing the task, and the mental strategies necessary to execute the task. Finally, you can use common sense and add or delete aspects of the key ingredients to actually improve the process.
Furthermore, if the modeling project is complex such as trading/investing or leadership, things will emerge that the successful people seem to know about but can’t explain well. For example, I have coined a number of words that describe some aspect of trading that most successful traders could not explain very well. Initially, successful traders talked about the importance of money management. But money management meant a lot of things — from managing other people’s money, to managing a budget, to managing a trade. What seemed most important to successful traders, however, was how big their position was for each trade. As a result, I coined the term “position sizing” when I wrote Trade Your Way to Financial-Freedom. Then I went on to find the key factors about position
sizing strategies — even beyond what the successful traders were able to explain. For example, no one that I modeled realized that the function of position sizing strategies actually is to help you meet your objectives.
In addition, we also talk about things like R-multiples which few successful traders talked about before we determined that it was important. System Quality Number scores also came up and that’s a method I invented whereby you can actually compare a five-minute futures trading system with a swing trading stock system, and actually know which is better — meaning which system will better help you meet your objectives through position sizing strategies.
Thus, in about 35 years of modeling successful traders and investors, we have come up with these models:
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- The tasks of trading (i.e., the daily trading process - primarily keeps you focused and prevents mistakes).
- Understanding the impact of mistakes and developing a process to eliminate them. Some good traders now describe the mistake elimination process as a great way to “manufacture” R.
- Knowing yourself and knowing your objectives.
- How to develop a trading system that fits you.
- Position sizing strategiessm.
- Knowing that position sizing strategies are designed to meet your objectives;
- Knowing that there are as many position sizing strategies as there are trading systems (nearly infinite).
- Knowing how to develop a position sizing strategy to meet your objectives.
- Understanding that there are at least six different market types
- Determining how to measure market type.
- Knowing that it is easy to develop a good system for any one market type, and
- Knowing that it is insane to expect one system to work in all market types.
- Understanding the financial-freedom version of the wealth game and understanding how to become infinitely wealthy.
- Understanding the critical strategies that are important for successful trading. For example:
- How to make decisions, realizing that without the appropriate criteria any decision you make will be useless. When you know decision making strategies, then you’ll know how to decide when a system fits you; how to decide what trades to take when your system signals more than you can take; and how to decide when/if your system is no longer working.
- How to properly convince yourself that a trading system works. There is nothing precise about convincer strategies (except that yours will work to convince you). Your convincer strategy may be so poor that all you have to see is enough charts where you buy on the green arrow and sell on the red arrow that you’ll be convinced to purchase a black box system. That “system” may not fit you, it probably will not work even if it did, and it will definitely cost you lots of money.
- How to motivate yourself to do what is necessary, including taking trades in a system that you are convinced works, that you have decided fits you, and that works in the market type that the market is in currently.
- Understanding Tharp Think. Tharp Think is now a collection of over 100 foundation level beliefs about trading that are critical for your success. To internalize them, to make them part of your neurology; you need to take each of them through a process called mind to muscle. These beliefs include:
- 17 core fundamental beliefs
- 6 core beliefs about the Matrix that makes up the world of trading
- 2 useful beliefs about modeling success
- 17 useful beliefs about who you are and what you need to know about yourself
- 9 useful beliefs about spirituality that will take you to a new level of success
- 7 fundamental beliefs about trading system operations that are critical to your success
- 5 core beliefs about mistakes
- 5 core beliefs about market types
- 4 core beliefs about understanding your objectives
- 12 critical beliefs about how to develop position sizing strategies to meet your objectives
- 12 important beliefs about systems development and developing a system to fit you
- 7 critical beliefs about how to play the infinite wealth game
- Plus, a number of bonus beliefs that are critical to your success in different ways.
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When you have mastered these beliefs and made them part of your core neurology, then you’ll have a distinct advantage that most traders and investors do not have or even understand.
It’s taken me 35 years to put all of this material in place and we’re still adding to it. This material is the guts of our Super Trader program. Even still, the Super Trader program in itself is a modeling project. As a separate model, I’m constantly modeling how to get the most out of the program.
Dr. David Hawkins has developed a log scale of human consciousness that goes from zero to 1000. 1000 is the level achieved by a few great masters such as Jesus. Much of the human race is below the dividing line between constructive consciousness and destructive consciousness at the level of 200. How does this apply to trading? You probably know what happens when you have traded while in a state of fear and on the Hawkins scale — fear falls someplace between 75-100. It’s way on the destructive side of consciousness. The other state that’s known to get traders in trouble is greed. Greed falls at about 125 on Hawkins scale of consciousness, still way on the destructive side of things and trading in a mental state of greed tends not to turn out well as you may have
experienced.
One needs a consciousness level of about 350, which Hawkins calls the level of acceptance, in order to be able to trade well. So that’s the minimum level that we shoot for Super Traders attaining in the program. I don’t like Hawkins’ method of measuring someone’s level of consciousness by using kinesthetic testing but he also says there is a direct correlation between consciousness and one’s level of happiness. As a result, we elect to measure one’s increase in happiness as a proxy for growth in consciousness. We also look at awareness, because awareness of what is going on inside of you is also direct evidence of an increase in consciousness.
Our company mission is “Transformation Through a Trading Metaphor.” So we are looking to help people become happier, freer, and much more successful in their lives - as a direct result of their change in consciousness and their adaptation of all of our models for developing successful trader. Thus, our first goal in the program is to massively increase the consciousness of each Super Trader. We do this through the following ways:
- Attaining happiness test score consistently over 65.
- Developing excellent ongoing awareness of beliefs, thoughts and emotions and how they control your life.
- Developing awareness of key strategies and how they impact your performance.
- Developing awareness of one’s values and what drives you.
- Developing awareness of parts and an absence of inner conflict.
- Developing awareness of what used to be unconscious (i.e., various metaprograms) so that you can now take back choice in your life. With choice comes freedom.
- Clearing all non-useful beliefs at the identity and spiritual levels as a minimum.
- Clearing all secrets, since secrets tend to just be issues with charges. When it’s clear, it will no longer be a secret or you will totally forget it. For example, you might not want to even think about something your Dad did to you while you were a child. After you clear the secret, however, you might not even think twice about it anymore and you may wonder why you thought it was such a big deal before.
- Developing a strong relationship with one’s Inner Guidance so that it can start guiding your personal evolution.
- Understanding your purpose in life and having it guide your life. When you really get this, it becomes a major transformation in your life.
- Documenting at least five major transformations. To me, that’s evidence that you can now overcome any other obstacles in the future.
- Documenting how you will overcome future obstacles that might occur in your life or in the Super Trader program.
We have many tools, methods, lessons, and workshops to help people through the steps in the program but these twelve criteria are evidence for us of personal transformation for the Super Traders and of accomplishing our mission. While I cannot give you lots of evidence in this short article, I can give you several examples of what has happened to people’s happiness scores during their first few years in the program.
Below are five charts for Super Traders who scored their lifetime happiness levels. The graphs were submitted as part of Super Trader Lesson 13 in which I ask them to look at their life review (from Lesson 7) and score their happiness for each year they have been alive. Scores below zero indicate very unhappy periods. Scores below minus 40 are seriously depressed people.
For this article, I just took the first four people alphabetically by first name who have completed the psychological portion of the Super Trader program. The fifth person I chose intentionally (and you’ll see why when you get to his chart). The dramatic increase in scores in the last two years on each chart shows the immense impact of the Super Trader program. Those last two high scores reflect how each can find happiness now for no reason (other than for increased consciousness) so you can assume that the latest results are fairly permanent.
Here is the first example of someone who joined the program in late 2014
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His comment of the program was as follows:
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In enrolling in the Super Trader program, my intent was to learn to deal with the emotions that every trader experiences — fear, greed, self-sabotage. After completing Super Trader I, not only am I now a more focused, disciplined, and relaxed trader, but an unexpected byproduct of the program is that I am also living a calmer, happier, and more purposeful life.
In compiling my Happiness score looking back over my life, I was shocked at how unhappy I was. I thought I was living the American Dream — college, corporate career, house, family, and dog. Now I clearly see that I was not really fulfilled; something I may have known deep down, but just thought it was the way it is. I was successful by societal norms, yet I felt that there must be more to life. By working on my psychology and applying the Super Trader tools and techniques, I am well on my way to financial-freedom, reinventing myself, and living life under my definition of success.
I now see that my poor trading performance was only a symptom of a larger underlying problem. I truly believe that “trading is 100% psychological”.
— Albert Lau, Los Angeles
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And here is a second example of someone who had only had a few low points in his life and might be described as having average happiness upon entering the program.
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Here’s what he says about his experience doing the psychological work.
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I took the Happiness Test a few times prior to joining the Super Trader program. I don't recall the exact scores, but am quite certain they were fairly high. Once in the program, however, I realized I was only fooling myself with those scores. As you can see from my graph, I had some life events that caused significant dips along the way, but I was always able to overcome them. The challenge was I wasn't unhappy, but I wasn't truly happy either as evidenced by my scores always peaking around 30. — Brandon Evans, Cary NC
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Here is a third example. In this case, the trend toward increase happiness started before the Super Trader program. He is from Asia and moved to Canada as the scores started to climb. But the 2015 and 2016 scores reflect his experience in the Super Trader program.
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He actually gave me a quote to go with the graph and asked me to list his phone number as well. I elected not to do that, but you can call and get it:
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ST program allows you to give your life a different perspective. You will understand your true SELF why you do what you do. That alone is so valuable that you can apply to your life journey. You will trade better and in fact you will just do better whatever you want to achieve. I am very fortunate to take the Super Trader Journey and so far it is the best training I have acquired. — Bryan Hou, Canada
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And here is the fourth example:
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I started out with a happy childhood and then my happiness started to drop dramatically once my conscious mind started to develop and I unconsciously allowed it to be impacted by my outside environment and influences. Near the end of high school, I started to do some personal growth, which increased my happiness slightly and I continued to grind through life and was in peruse of the holy grail. I got to a point where I knew there was more to life and I wanted to trade for a living and start living. That is when I came across Van Tharp’s work and joined the super trader program shortly afterwards. The program has guided me through multiple life transition both spiritually/psychological/financially. Since joining the Super Trader program my
happiness and life fulfillment as transitions in a way that I’m not able to recognize it. I am truly grateful for joining the program and how it has impacted my life — Dominic Boire
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I have about 50 such examples to choose from and I deliberately picked the last example, partially because it is annotated and because it is quite an extreme example. Here are his happiness scores.
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The top score of about 80 was 2.5 years ago but his scores have remained that high. Here’s what he said about the program:
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The Super Trader Program has been transformative for me. I have been trading unsuccessfully for about 7 years. In my early trading years, I was learning up the technical stuff. Technically, I rate myself above average. However, I was still having issues trading. Fear and greed were mucking my trading. So I tried mindfulness and other emotional control techniques, but fear and greed still remained. When I started the Super Trader Program (a) I found what the core issues were (which of my background experiences had created the fear and greed) and (b) Van guided me through the effective tools I could use the effectively manage these core issues. As such, the Super Trader Program has been transformative as I worked systematically and under
expert guidance to effectively dismantle underlying core issues that were blocking my trading practice. At the time of this writing, I can safely say that my initial issues have been resolved, and I am on the verge of trading a great R-multiple trading system. Some issues still come up, but thanks to the tools I have picked up in my Super Trader training, it is only a matter of recognizing the exact issue and dismantling the issue in a safe and systematic manner.
— Tang Hee, Tan — Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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I don’t know of any other program in the world that offers an ongoing program to increase freedom, happiness, and success. It gets you to develop a state of being happy and free, which makes it easy to do what is necessary for success.
Not everyone, however, is a good fit for Super Trader. I actively screen interested people in three different workshops now — the Oneness Awakening Workshop; Peak Performance 101, and the New Infinite Wealth Workshop. My entry criteria include 1) the program makes sense financially, 2) the candidate is willing and excited to work on themselves, 3) and the candidate shows commitment to do the massive self-work required. Depending upon your willingness and ability to complete the work, the program will take 3-6 years to finish.
Let’s look at what you get with the program.
- First, you get three phases of a structured personal development and business development process that I have been refining for the last 25 years. It consists of nearly 40 Super Trader Lessons which you will work on and which I will review. The ST1 lessons take an average of 1,000 hours of your time to complete. I don’t have sufficient data with the new structure for ST2 and ST3 but it could easily take you another 1,000 hours to complete those two phases.
- Second, you get my time. My consulting rate is now $25,000 per day but you can communicate with me as needed. I review every weekly report, every lesson you turn in, and your business plan. When your work is incomplete, you will receive coaching about finishing before moving on.
- Third, you can attend our workshops. If you attended all the workshops we offer in a year, it would cost you at least $40,000. During the phases of the ST program, there are certain workshop limitations to help you focus on your psychological progress -
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- In ST1, you can attend any psychological workshop, any Oneness event, Blueprint, Infinite Wealth, and Systems Development. (Actually, in ST1, you can also attend any technical workshops but there is a fee.)
- In ST2, you can attend any workshop.
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The current price for the Super Trader program is $17,500 per year. In a few months - on August 1st, I will raise the price to $20,000 per year. Also, I intend to increase the value of the program each year and I intend to raise the price by at least $2,000 each year for the foreseeable future. Still, the yearly cost of the program remains cheaper than a day of working with me and much cheaper than paying the full price to take all of our workshops.
When you compare the Super Trader price with the price for other programs of a somewhat similar nature, ST looks very inexpensive.
- Tony Robbins works with captains of industry and who each pay him $1 million per year.
- Tony also has a platinum program that costs only $75,000 per year. That program allows people to participate in any special events he plans. The $75K is a yearly fee — participants still have to pay for those events individually.
- Robert Dilts has a mastermind program. It involves monthly meetings, probably by phone but possibly in person sometimes. The cost for that is $25,000 per year.
- My previous Super Trader program was only two years long and cost $25,000 per year.
Even with the upcoming price increase, the ST program now is still much cheaper than the previous ST program of $25,000. The old ST version allowed you to attend workshops for two years, have me review your “Ultimate Trader Test” answers, and review your business plan. The new version provides a lot more structure and value to the Super Traders in the program now. And at present, I plan to personally conduct the program for another 10-15 years.
We currently have about 60 people in the program and the maximum is about 75 so I have about 15 available slots for 2017. When those slots fill, I will close the program to new entrants until we are back under the maximum number.
If you have been on the fence about signing up for ST in 2017, there are only two screening opportunities left before the next price increase goes into effect:
- The Peak 101 Workshop, June 2nd through June 4th
- Oneness Awakening Workshop, July 8th through 9th.
If you have attended either of those workshops within the last two years then all you have to do is submit an application. Remember, I will close off the program to new entrants once we fill the vacant slots. If you have questions about the program, and would like to see how this fits within your life, please contact [email protected]. She is glad to answer any of your questions.
i If you know of any other large scale modeling projects other than the tree mentioned, with lots of backup literature to describe it, please let me know.
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About the Author: Trading coach, and author, Dr. Van K. Tharp is widely recognized for his best-selling books and his outstanding Peak Performance Home Study program - a highly regarded classic that is suitable for all levels of traders and investors. You can learn more about Van Tharp www.vantharp.com.
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PEAK PERFORMANCE 101 June 2-4
Peak Performance 101 is Dr. Tharp's core psychological workshop, and his most transformative course for over 20 years. If you want to know how great traders think, behave and act so you can achieve consistent and profitable results, without stress, then this workshop is for you. You will not only learn what makes a great trader great, but you will also find out what is holding you back. There are many ways you could be sabotaging your market experiences: overtrading, not pulling the trigger, over confidence or lack of confidence, or just making mistake after mistake. Van Tharp designed this workshop to help you break down barriers, as well as teach you specific tasks and
strategies that will improve your trading results overnight.
What Can You Expect to Learn?
Seven money-making benefits are waiting for you. They’ll help you keep your losses smaller, make more consistent profits and be more relaxed about your trading.
- The three ingredients of success: You must know this information, at least unconsciously, if you are to prosper. These three mental ingredients are a must in any task you do in order to perform like a "Market Wizard." Most people don’t even know about them, which is why success is so difficult to duplicate. But after the Peak Performance Trading Course, you’ll thoroughly understand how these three key ingredients can control your life. Most of all, you’ll know how you can control them.
- The components of a low-risk idea: The trick to compounding your personal wealth is to trade low-risk ideas. Low-risk ideas are found everywhere—not just in conservative investments. In fact, a great deal of wealth is made from following low-risk ideas in highly speculative arenas like options and futures. But you must understand what makes up a low-risk idea. It’s not what you think.
- Why position sizing™ strategies are so critical to your bottom line results! Few people understand this critical concept, yet it means the difference between consistent top performance and mediocre performance for most people. We’ll teach you how to do position-sizing-based trading so that, if you want, you will have the same risk and exposure in the market day after day. Think how calm you could be, knowing that your risk is always the same.
- 15 ways to develop rock-solid discipline in your trading: Discipline really means controlling your mental state. Unfortunately, most people allow their mental state to control them. In contrast, real winners maintain discipline that allows them to charge ahead of others in the field. If you play in a zero-sum trading game like futures, you need to know every trick. These are the real secrets that separate successful traders and investors from the average person.
- Dr. Tharp’s Top Tasks of Trading for successful trading and investing: Here is a partial list of the ten tasks we'll help you master: developing low-risk ideas, stalking, mental rehearsal, self-analysis, action, aborting, and, best of all, taking profits. At Peak Performance 101, Dr. Tharp will help you install his model so you can trade like other successful traders. You’ll have tools at your disposal that the average investor or trader never even thought about.
- How to act quickly with sureness and confidence: One trait all the best traders and investors have in common is extreme confidence in what they’re doing. Confidence is the one quality you must develop to attain your peak level of performance. At the Peak Performance 101 Workshop, you’ll learn how to develop the kind of confidence only the best traders and investors have.
- How to develop a plan for trading that will set you way above the crowd: There are certain disciplines—certain techniques used within a specific structure—that give the professional trader and investor the edge over amateur investors. Dr. Tharp understands these disciplines. He is an expert at coaching others to use them.
PEAK PERFORMANCE 202 June 6-9
What You Can Expect To Learn.
The Peak Performance 202 Workshop is divided into three sections covering 4 days:
- How you are programmed to follow the path that others want you to follow. It’s one that will help them win, while you lose. You are totally unaware of most of this, but when you start to wake up, you’ll be amazed at your new freedom. And, imagine what will happen when you start to program yourself instead of following the programming of others.
- The various games that you play. These are mostly unconscious games. And when you play a game unconsciously, you have no chance of winning it. Instead, the winners will be those who made up the rules in the first place. The whole area of games is a major breakthrough in the psychology of personal success and you’ll be amazed at what you’ll discover and what you can do with that knowledge.
- Personal reinvention. You’ll learn what your strategy has been for winning in all aspects of life and how it’s held you back. And, when you’ve accomplished that, you’ll have the opportunity to totally come from another place as a trader. You’ll form a team with the other participants and declare a vision that is currently way beyond the scope of your imagination. Only by day three, you’ll realize that you can reach that dream! Furthermore, you’ll leave by taking the first steps toward your declaration with a whole team of people behind you.
PEAK PERFORMANCE 204 — MENTAL STRATEGIES June 10-12
Here Are Just a Few of the Topics We Plan to Cover in the Mental Strategies Workshop:
The material presented in this new, advanced workshop is poised to make a dramatic impact on your life. While in attendance, you will gain understanding about how you are the central character in your story, and how you really create this story, and see how you can ultimately play an active role in shaping your own life. By thoroughly exploring how each of us uses mental strategies and the sequencing of thoughts, you will have the groundwork to continue to hone your skills throughout the workshop and beyond.
Explore success strategies in a way that they've never been explored before, and learn what really makes a difference in many areas traders often strive for success. Attend this non-competitive, supportive workshop to realize your potential and you will have the opportunity to deeply understand which areas of your life you want to apply these strategies to!
Mental strategies is one of three crucial ingredients to success. I only touch upon this topic in Peak Performance 101, and in this workshop you'll take the time to really explore this secret to success. If you have studied the fifth volume of Peak Performance Home Study in earnest, you may recall some information about mental strategies from the discussions contained in this course. Typically, few people realize the power and real profit-potential one gains from knowing his/her various strategies. In the Modeling Great Trading Through Mental Strategies Workshop, we're going to go much further than just teaching you about your own unconscious methods of achieving excellence. Our goal is to be able to
go one step further and help you apply these concepts to effect change in your life!
Participants all agreed that this was one of the most significant workshops they had ever attended. Everyone left with a new sense of purpose and a new direction and a support team behind them. We expect the second workshop to have even more impact.
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The Super Trader Program has several openings available at our current rate. However, at the end of July the rate will increase. If you are considering joining we encourage you to get your application in now to "beat the rush" of new applicants that come in as the deadline approaches.
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Presented by Van Tharp
with co-presenter RJ Hixson
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Presented by Libby Adams and RJ HIxson
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June 10-12
Saturday-Monday
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Presented by Van Tharp
and Rebecca Price
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August 5-7
Saturday-Monday
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August 8-9
Tuesday-Wednesday
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NEW! Trading in a Sideways Market
Presented by Super Trader graduate Kim Andersson
(more information about this workshop will be added soon)
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August 11-13
Friday-Sunday
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Dates Coming Soon for Sept, Oct, Nov.
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Finally — A Vote for “Status Quo” in the EU
by D. R. Barton, Jr.
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2016 brought us two big elections that were significant market movers. First, the Brexit vote completely dominated financial news for weeks beforehand and then roiled markets for days afterwards. I wrote about the market action immediately after the vote in a late June article.
Out of those two 2016 elections arose two dominant story lines.
The first was the rise of populism. While there are many definitions for the term, this description from The Economist seems to resonate well:
“Some scholars linked it to frustration over declines in status or welfare, some to nationalist nostalgia. Others saw it as more of a political strategy in which a charismatic leader appeals to the masses while sweeping aside institutions (though not all populist movements have such a leader). Despite its fuzziness, the term’s use has grown. In 2004 Cas Mudde, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, offered a definition that has become increasingly influential. In his view populism is a “thin ideology”, one that merely sets up a framework: that of a pure people versus a corrupt elite.”
In essence the Brexiteers and the Trump campaign were able to incite the populace to vote against some version of the “corrupt elite.”
The other big story line was the failure of the pollsters. A Bloomberg headline just after the U.S. presidential election heralded ”Failed Polls in 2016 Call Into Question a Profession’s Precepts.” That article laid out in great detail not only the huge missed calls in the Brexit and U.S. presidential elections, but it also pointed out the blunders in the recent elections in Scotland, Greece, Israel and even the miss on the 2014 U.S. mid-term congressional elections.
Sweet Relief — From France?
The French are known for many things — great food, great wine, amazing museums and a national history rich with stories better than you will find in any novel. Political stability, however, has not been one of their strong suits.
So in this past weekend’s French presidential election, the financial markets were more than a little surprised by the results and were elated that the two big storylines of 2016 had been reversed:
- Populist candidates Le Pen and Mélenchon collectively garnered fewer votes than expected. The most popular populist candidate, Le Pen, came in more than a percent below her polling numbers.
- The polls were almost dead right — certainly well within acceptable margins of error.
Most importantly, any chance of two anti-EU candidates (again, Le Pen and Mélenchon) squaring off in a run-off election was squashed by French voters. And the markets? They responded positively here in the U.S., more so in Europe, and most notably in France. See the chart below:
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Perhaps you are wondering why the markets do not seem concerned at all that the anti-EU and populist candidate Ms. Le Pen will win the May 7th run-off … The answer is pretty simple. Since the polls got the April 23rd numbers so right, the markets are giving high probabilities to major polls which have center-left and pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron way, way ahead of Le Pen. The very well-designed chart from the British newspaper The Independent shows the numbers below:
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So with the pro-EU candidate firmly in the lead 11 days from the French presidential election, financial players are finally breathing a bit easier and looking elsewhere for market-moving news.
As always, your thoughts and comments are always welcome — please send them to drbarton “at” vantharp.com
Great Trading,
D. R.
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About the Author: A passion for the systematic approach to the markets and lifelong love of teaching and learning have propelled D.R. Barton, Jr. to the top of the investment and trading arena. He is a regularly featured analyst on Fox Business' Varney & Co. TV show (catch him most Thursdays between 12:30 and 12:45), on Bloomberg Radio Taking Stock and MarketWatch's Money Life Show. He is also a frequent guest analyst on CNBC's Closing Bell, WTOP News Radio in Washington, D.C., and has been a guest on China Central Television - America and Canada's Business News Network. His articles have appeared on SmartMoney.com MarketWatch.com and Financial Advisor magazine. You may contact D.R. at "drbarton" at
"vantharp.com".
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Intra Day Quiz Series
by Dr. Ken Long
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There is one trade quiz from Ken for you today.
QUIZ — Quiz — This is a screen shot of a trade setting up. Your assignment is to decide how the price might move from here, where you would enter and where you would put your initial stop. How would you mark this chart up?
Frame + Follow Through — This is a screen shot of how the trade would be framed according to Ken’s guidelines. How close did it match to yours?
Solution — This is the price chart that actually developed out of the initial quiz-blank screen shot. Does the actual price path match one of your imagined scenarios?
If you had played along on these trades, how would your trade have worked out? Collect your notes, results, and any questions you might have for Ken and send them to longke “at” yahoo “dot” "com" with the title "trade frame clarification."
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QUIZ 1:
Below is the “QUIZ.” It's a case study of the inverse volatility ETF XIV on Monday and Tuesday, April 24+25. What do you see? Where were there trades to be framed?
Click on the image for a larger view. The link to the solution is below it.
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FRAME + FOLLOW THRU and SOLUTION:
Click here to access the solution and follow-thru for this Quiz.
Here is a follow-up on chart of XIV as it looks today with a new situation to consider — if and where to go short. See how Ken describes the current frame trade possibilities in the accompanying video below.
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Click on the link below to view the video as Ken details this 2-day move.
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About the Author: Dr. Ken Long retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel and teaches at the U.S. Army Staff College. He is a proud father of three, a husband, teacher, student, martial artist and active trader. Ken also instructs dynamic trading workshops for the Van Tharp Institute.
Ken's next workshop is just around the corner. Watch this video to hear two testimonials from students of Ken Long.
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FREE Book!
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TRADING BEYOND THE MATRIX
The Red Pill for Traders and Investors
Eleven traders tell their stories about transforming
their trading results and lives, in this 400 plus page book.
Below is a brief video on how powerful this book is to traders.
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