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Tharp's Thoughts Weekly Newsletter

  • Article: One Simple But Effective Technical Tool Can Improve Your Investment Results, by D. R. Barton, Jr.
  • Super Trader: We Reduced the Price of the Super Trader Program By As Much As 25%
  • Workshops: Early Enrollment Discount Ends Next Week for July Workshops!
  • Tip: The Super Trader Program is Nothing Less Than a Life Transforming Process, by Laurent Vix
  • FREE BOOK!: Trading Beyond the Matrix

$700 Early Enroll Discounts Expire Next Week on July Events, Including:

Van Tharp's Infinite Wealth Workshop


Anyone Can Learn These Principles,
Yet Without This Course Most People Will Fail. Here are the Facts:

The processes of making money and accumulating significant wealth, including millionaire status, are very easy. They could be taught to every child in school by the third grade. Unfortunately, these principles are not taught in most elementary schools — or even our universities. Instead, most school systems teach us biases which prevent people from making money and even hinder us from having a successful, happy life. You probably have some of these biases yourself. In fact, only 2% of the population in the United States will be financially secure and able to rely solely on themselves when they reach retirement. Other parts of the world are even worse off.

But, if you’re reading this, you’re probably not the average person. In fact, you’re likely well above average when it comes to financial know-how. But are you infinitely rich? Could you stop working now if you wanted to? Or are you still in the rat race, despite having worked hard for many years? Perhaps you’ll always work, simply because you love what you do. But think about the freedom and joy you’d feel if you could right now say that you never had to work again a day in your life. Think about how dramatically you could improve your lifestyle by being in that position.

You can also find out a bit more about Ken's new courses by watching these VIDEOS

To find our more about what these workshops have to offer READ BELOW.



Feature Article

DR

One Simple But Effective Technical Tool Can Improve Your Investment Results

D. R. Barton, Jr.

Click here to resolve formatting problems

While working in and around the financial markets for almost three decades, I’ve learned that people often get so bought in to one way of doing things that they can’t even think about adding inputs from other styles. Value investors and market technicians tend not to mix well but today, we’ll look at a way that value investors can add a technical trick to improve their results.

I learned lessons about things that don’t seem to go together early on. I grew up loving to eat. Not the kind of eating to get filled up, (though I did plenty of that, too), but the kind of eating to enjoy flavors and combinations of flavors that would excite my taste buds.

I loved trying new flavors and finding things that go well together so it was a natural progression for me to learn to cook. By the time I hit college, I already had a following for some of my best dishes. In addition to cooking occasionally at college, the legal drinking age in my home state of Virginia back then was 18, so I was not a foreigner to enjoying a cold brew in the evening after my studies were done.

On one Friday evening respite from the rigors of a chemical engineering curriculum, I discovered a combination that should not have worked well — but it did. Ever since my discovery, I’ve had scores of people thank me for this recommendation — even though they originally shuddered at hearing about the pairing…

I had just cooked some delicious, gooey brownies (not that dry cakey kind), and while the batch was cooling, I cut off a little piece just for the chef to taste. They were chocolatey, moist and delicious, of course. I reached over to wash the confection down and found myself taking a generous swig of beer. I thought, “Uh-oh, this is going to be a big mistake.” Then the unexpected happened — my taste buds burst into life. The combination was delicious! I tried the pair together again — and again — awesome. Then I called to my friends in from the other room and told them that they just had to try it. At first, they all told me I was crazy (I seem to remember a bit more colorful language…), but I finally got one of them to try it. And the rest, as they say, is history. The whole pan of brownies soon disappeared (along with more than a few beers) — and a legend was born.

Since I discovered that tasty combo, one thing has remained true — every single person who has heard my recommendation to try brownies and beer has said, “Yuk” or “That sounds horrible.” Just as true, every one of them that eventually tried it has thanked me.

Go ahead — give it a try. And then send me an email to drbarton “at” vantharp.com and let me know what you think!

In trading and investing I find that the same phenomenon holds true — some things that diehards think should never go together, just seem to work. And with that in mind, let’s take a look at how value investors might use a technical tool to make their already good value picks even better.

Following in the Footsteps of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffet


Good value investors know how to dig into the data to find undervalued stocks. There are many ways to find companies that are great values including measures such as margin of safety (the amount a company trades below its intrinsic value) and Graham’s Number (Subtract a company’s total liabilities from its current assets and then divide that number by the shares outstanding. A stock price less than 66% of its Graham’s number shows a possible deep value opportunity). Graham, as you may know, is known as “the father of value investing” and was Warren Buffet’s mentor.

While Graham’s looked only at the raw balance sheet and income statement numbers, Buffet added his personal spin on Graham’s approach by incorporating less easily measured characteristics like competitive advantage and management strength. Following in these giants’ footsteps, today’s value investors look for either distressed companies at fire-sale prices or strong companies that are trading at a significant discount — and many great stock investment opportunities are found.

The problem for value investors is that they are notorious for getting into positions too early! Wall Street is full of sayings about buying stocks too soon during a down move. “Don’t catch a falling knife” or “Don’t catch a falling piano” are similar phrases that remind us that buying too early can be painful! So what is the well-informed value investor to do?

Value Investors: Your Research Is Fine . . . But Your Entries Stink. Here’s Help.

When I was writing the New York Times best-seller Safe Strategies for Financial-Freedom along with famed value investor Dr. Steve Sjuggerud and Van as the lead author, we looked at a series of Steve’s value picks to see if adding an entry strategy to his excellent analysis could improve results.

We looked at a series of 21 longer-term investments that Steve had recommended. As a group, the investments did quite well earning an average of 2.5 times the initial risk amount.

We wondered if we could improve on those numbers so we added a simple entry filter. To enter a position, we required that the stock was heading in our direction — it had to have a higher price than it did 8 weeks ago (40 trading days).

The results were stunning — using this entry discipline, 70% of the losing trades were eliminated! And only one of the stocks that passed this simple technical filter ended up as a loss.

So What? And an Update

Value investing can be a great way to find real bargains in the market. Sometimes, however, the “bargain” is a bargain for some very good reasons and the stock just keeps falling. Adding a simple technical entry filter, however, can keep you from “catching a falling knife.”

As a parting gift, I have an update on the entry filter for you! In today’s fasters markets, the original 40-day rule has gotten a bit too long to work as well as it did when we wrote the book. Now, my research has found that having a higher price for 5 to 6 weeks (25 — 30) days is a great filter for entering longer-term investment.

So here’s the rule: Once you’ve identified your value stock (or any longer-term investment you’d like to make), buy it today only if the price is higher than its price 6 weeks ago. This will ensure that you’re not buying a stock while it’s still under downward momentum pressure. While this requires a bit of patience at times, it’s a practice that I’ve found pays off handsomely in the long run and that will reward you across many trades.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback (and your results of trying brownies with beer) — just send an email to drbarton “at” vantharp.com. Until next week…

Great Trading,
D. R.

About the Author: A passion for the systematic approach to the markets and a 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".


Super Trader

We Basically Just Reduced the Price of the Super Trader Program By 25%

Interested traders have until July 31st to take advantage of a huge reduction in the price of the Super Trader program. In the old Super Trader program, students paid for three years of Super Trader 1 upfront, and then paid for at least one more year when they started Super Trader 2. Thus, the minimum cost of the program was $66,750. Now, however, students can finish the program in three years for a total investment of only $50,250. For motivated and committed traders looking to transform themselves and their trading, that’s a huge effective discount of $16,750.

If you have been considering joining the program but have been putting off your decision, the next 45 days are your opportunity to act and save big. On August 1st, the price of the program will increase by several thousand dollars (but the ability to finish in three years will still be available.) The longer you wait, the higher the cost - in 2017, we will raise the price of the program tuition to $20,000 per year.

I recently wrote an article on the change in the structure of the program which you can read here.

If you'd like to see the most updated information on the new Super Trader structure click here to view it online, or click here to download a PDF of the new program overview.


Workshops

July Workshops — $700 Early Enrollment Discount Expires Next Week!

INFINITE WEALTH — July 8-10

Twelve Benefits You’ll Receive from the Infinite Wealth Course

  1. You’ll learn about the five-step method to becoming infinitely rich in much more detail. Moreover, you’ll develop a personalized plan for you.
  2. Become wealthy on the inside so that it will appear on the outside. You’ll develop a personal plan and learn how to overcome your personal roadblocks so that you can get started immediately.
  3. Learn several principles involved in becoming wealthy and learn how to make those principles ingrained in your body so that they become part of your behavior. That’s one of the real secrets to wealth. Not the knowledge but having the knowledge be a part of who you are.
  4. You don’t have any assets right now? We’ll also show you 15 steps to increase your income by 1000% within the next five years. And, you need very little to get started.
  5. You’ll learn "financial intelligence." You’ll learn to think like the rich instead of like the poor or the middle class. Even if you have money, it’s important to think like the rich or you could lose it all. That knowledge will include a simple strategy to get rid of all of your debt within 5 to 7 years, including your mortgage. How close to infinite wealth would you be if you didn’t have any debt?
  6. At the end of the course you’ll be able to access a wealth building state of mind that will help you achieve your dreams.
  7. We’ll help you determine your purpose in life and use that as motivation to do what is necessary to achieve Infinite Wealth. After all of these years, you’ll finally understand the one simple decision you need to make to start moving toward the fast track and out of the rat race.
  8. You’ll learn to overcome years of conditioning by the school systems, by your banker and by your accountant.
  9. You’ll learn to rethink your finances. Some of you could be infinitely rich within a year.
  10. Learn the difference between working for money and money working for you. If you’re self-employed, you’re still working for money. This system is so tight that it actually explains many of the problems that most traders have— they’re self-employed and they are thinking with the mentality of the self-employed. Learn to think like a business owner.
  11. In the New Infinite Wealth Workshop, you learn how to develop resiliency so that when you achieve any sort of setback, you will bounce back easily and be able to continue on track toward infinite wealth.
  12. In addition, we will be emphasizing the psychological tools to make sure you can follow the steps we are going to give you.

LEARN MORE...


SYSTEMS THINKING FOR TRADERS: How to Use Systems Thinking to Improve Your Trade Craft — July 12-14

How will you benefit from attending this Systems Thinking Workshop?

  • Learn to plan your trading business and plan your trades more effectively for achieving the results you are trying to generate.
  • Improve the probabilities for your success in trading
  • Find out what key questions to ask in order to challenge your established market beliefs, logic, and mental structures for trading.
  • Create a series of useful tactical checklists for daily and weekly use so you don’t miss common crucial items and keep your trading efficiency very high. Gain invaluable lessons from practicing systems thinking.
  • Identify the few critical states in price action and how to plan how to take advantage of those when you find them.
  • Develop your situational awareness skills by simply paying attention to what’s happening in order to evolve your strategy as well as exploit new opportunities.
  • Understand how to construct trade scenarios in order to anticipate possible outcomes and reduce the chances for a “surprise.”
  • Clarify your objectives and understand how your long term plans, your big picture process, and expecting the unexpected, all support you getting to those objectives.
  • Feel more confident in your trading regardless of what the markets are doing.
  • Improve your decision making processes for faster execution with results more aligned with your goals.
  • Ultimately – feel better about your trading and improve your returns.

These are all things that are the natural outcomes of a systems thinking orientation as applied to trading. These are the things that the members of the tortoise community of practice and the chatroom have been doing to improve their trading on explicit systems developed by Ken and through the community collaboration.

This new three-day workshop will not only have extensive pre-work that will give you a head start on the material, but Ken will have dozens of practical exercise for the class which he has already field tested within his trading group. All of the exercises and three days of presentations will focus on helping you realize how important this mindset is for your own trading and developing your systems thinking orientation and how to capitalize on this important factor.


LEARN MORE...


ADVANCED ADAPTIVE SWING TRADING — July 15-17

In this new three-day workshop, Dr. Ken Long will present a series of advanced, adaptive trading systems that work well in the swing period holding time-frame – from two days to two weeks.

Adaptive trading systems have rules and rule parameters that adjust to market conditions and price conditions rather than remaining constant.

They both mechanical systems and adaptive systems work well, they just work differently. Mechanical rules are more easily understood, are easier to program, and they are easier to execute. Mechanical rule-based systems typically do not adjust to changing market conditions and therefore are out of the market at times when the condition criteria are unmet. These are the kind of systems detailed in the Swing Trading Elearning Course.

Adaptive rules require a better understanding by the trader of price action, of self and of the market. These systems can also take more time to monitor and to execute.


LEARN MORE...

Click Here To Learn More

July

$700 Early Enrollment Discount Expires Next Week on All July Workshops

July 8-10

Infinite Wealth
Presented by Van Tharp

July 12-14

Systems Thinking for Traders
Presented by Ken Long

July 15-17

Advanced Adaptive Swing Trading
Presented by Ken Long

August

Aug 19-21

Trading in Bear Markets and Down Markets
Presented by Kirk Cooper

Aug 22-23

NEW! System Quality Number — SQN Workshop
Presented by RJ Hixson

Two days of practical application of the System Quality Number (SQN)

 

September

Sept. 9-11

Forex Trading Systems
Presented by Gabriel Grammatidis

Sept. 12-14

Live Forex Trading

(NEW, expanded to 3 days!)
Presented by Gabriel Grammatidis

October

Sept. 30-
Oct. 2

Peak Performance 101
Presented by Van Tharp with co-presenter RJ Hixson

Oct. 4- 7

Peak Performance 202

Presented by Libby Adams and RJ Hixson

Oct. 9- 11

Infinite Wealth

Presented by Van Tharp

November (End of October)

Oct. 28-30

Day Trading Systems Workshop
Presented by Ken Long

Oct. 31-Nov. 1

Live Day Trading Workshop
Presented by Ken Long

December

TBD

Super Trader Summit
Private event for Super Traders

Combo Discounts available for all back-to-back workshops!

See our workshop page for details.


Trading Tip

DR

The Super Trader Program is Nothing Less Than a Life Transforming Process

by Laurent Vix

Click here to resolve formatting problems

Before I started the Super Trader program, I was in despair with my trading. After years of a "bumpy ride" I was about to give it up. I had started out very well by trading the internet bubble in the 1990s. I sold my whole portfolio at the very top of the market making big money with this bright intuition. I then believed I was a kind of market wizard. Later, I understood that was not true and I realized that I had entered the "school of hard knocks."

However, from time to time, I was experiencing great trading periods which kept me in the market. I noticed that these good results had nothing to do with my trading system but were due to my mental state. Confidence and peace of mind meant winning trades, while fear, greed and anger meant disaster. I was resentful and blamed other people for what was happening to me.

I first heard about Dr. Van Tharp in November 2013. I read three of his books in a row. The "Matrix" had been the real mind-opener. I registered for the Peak Performance 101 in January 2014 to see if it was not just a hook because to me, it was almost too good to be true.

I realized that this kind of teaching fits me and that the Super Trader program is about trading improvement and personal development. I also listened to other students' experiences and transformations. So, I joined the program in February 2014.

Key concepts and great tools are provided in the Peak Performance Course and Workshops. I've realized that I am the core resource for my trading. I understand now that I am creating my reality with my beliefs. I have realized that negative emotions have a positive purpose and that my shadow parts are not the enemy. I’ve learned that so many concepts impact my trading and my life. The greatest benefit has been the awareness of my bond with my Inner Guidance that happened during a Oneness workshop. This has been a major shift in my consciousness. These are powerful tools! I wouldn’t have known how to make the best of them to achieve transformation on my own. I knew I needed guidelines.

The Super Trader program provided a structured, progressive and reliable framework for transformations. Without being fully committed to this program, I would not have gone deep enough on some important exercises, I would have just skipped through them. I wouldn't have gone out of my comfort zone and that is precisely where the transformations are. The coaching and support from Van, his staff and other Super Traders to overcome my roadblocks are priceless.

As of this writing, I am completing lesson 11 of the psychological part of the program. There have been many shifts in my thinking and the way I see the world. I can now control my mental state, I am able to forgive everyone and myself. I feel a deep sense of peace and I am happy for no reason. My relationships have radically improved. I am not haunted by the past and I don't worry about the future anymore. I am driven by a purpose in life and guided by my Inner Guidance who empowers me to achieve greater goals. I see miracles in my daily life that I had believed were impossible.

This program goes beyond anything I could have imagined. If you're looking for proficient trading and life-changing transformations, consider the Super Trader program.

Sincerely,
Laurent Vix

 

Editors note: To learn more about the program and it if may be right for you, click here.


Free Book

FREE Book!

TRADING BEYOND THE MATRIX
The Red Pill for Traders and Investors

We pay for the book, you pay for shipping.
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CLICK HERE!

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.




Swing Trading Systems E-Learning Course

 

Swing with Ken Long

 

Ken Long's systematic approach to swing trading with 5 distinct trading systems. This course has over 10 hours of instruction with significant follow-along documents included for students to download.

 

Review the videos as many times, and as often as you like, for one full year. Plus, you receive a bonus workshop at no extra charge—Dr. Van Tharp's Tharp Think Essentials!

If you are interested in both this video home study program (featuring mechanical, rule-based systems) and our new Advanced Adaptive Swing workshop (adaptive trading systems have rules and rule parameters that adjust to market conditions and price conditions rather than remaining constant) you benefit by buying both at the same time.

When you register for the workshop you can get a 22% discount on this home study.

The home study is not required to attend the workshop, however, an understanding of the systems in the the video home study may help a less experienced trader better understand the more advanced trading style which will be presented in the workshop. The systems, however, are totally different and the Advanced Adaptive Systems Workshop does not build upon the systems in the home study.

You can complete this course at your own pace, from the comfort of your own home or office, and access the materials as many times as you wish during your 1-year subscription period.

Take a look at this video from Ken to learn more about this course.

van tharp

We have extensive information about the Swing Trading System e-learning course, including how to purchase...click the link below!

Learn More About The Swing E-Learning Course...


Matrix Contest

MatrixEnter the Matrix Contest
for a chance to win a free workshop!

We want to hear about the one most profound insight that you got from reading Van's new book, Trading Beyond the Matrix, and how it has impacted your life. If you would like to enter, send an email to [email protected].

If you haven't purchased Trading Beyond the Matrix yet, click here.

For more information about the contest, click here.


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Send comments or ask Van a question by clicking here.

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June 22, 2016 #790

 

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