Tharp's Thoughts Weekly Newsletter (View On-Line)

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• Article The Impact of Spirit on Trading by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.
• Workshops Winter/Spring 2011 Workshop Schedule
• Trading Tip Gold Analysis and Strategy: December 4, 2010 by Florian Grummes

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Feature Article

The Impact of Spirit on Trading

by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.

Many years ago, after using a number of various psychological and coaching techniques, I decided that I was only going to use those that made a significant impact and had lasting changes. My experience was that only psychological techniques that included some sort of spiritual resource seemed to make this level of change possible. The concept of “spiritual resource” was independent of any particular faith. All that was important to me was that the technique allowed you to join with some spiritual resources.

I used to do a lot of one-on-one psychological consulting and my two favorite techniques were “timeline” and “core transformation.” In timeline work, you go back to the root cause of an event and heal the event by bringing lots of spiritual resources into play for all of the parties involved. You then take those resources forward in time after the initial event through the subsequent related events all the way to the present moment. By itself, this process was powerful but I also used to have people go to the end of the timeline and unite with the Light at the end. In that Light was your internal guidance. Connecting people with their internal guidance is a very powerful process.

Core transformation involved clients working with their "parts." For whichever part was proving troublesome, we would find that part’s intention. We then explored what that part really wanted through that intention, which was a core “spiritual” state. Such states included love, happiness, and oneness. We then allowed that part to step into that state and expand in terms of time and space. Core transformation took a troublesome part and gave it a form of spirituality.

I no longer offer much one-on-one psychological work for three reasons. First, much of my time is devoted to my Super Traders. I have created a number of psychological and spiritual resources for them. Second, we now include Libby Adams 28-day course as a major part of the psychological portion of the Super Trader Program. Thus, my Super Traders have an intensive 28 days to work on all of their major psychological issues. Libby’s technique, transformational meditation, is very spiritual—each person’s spiritual guidance plays an active role in the process. Third, I have found that I can help more people transform (i.e., become happier and better traders) through my workshops and events. And my newest workshop, the Oneness Awakening Workshop, probably has the greatest impact out of all of our events.

At the Oneness Awakening Workshop we hosted on November 13th and 14th, two things caught my attention. First, the visible and incredible transformations of some of the attendees in that workshop inspired me deeply. Second, more than any other of my workshops, this one really allows me to see how willing people are to stretch themselves out of their self-defined box and really examine the conscious and subconscious beliefs that run their lives. More recently, we hosted a 3-day Oneness Awakening Workshop for our Super Traders, which showed me even more.

Here are just a few comments from people at those workshops:

I loved the Oneness Awakening Course because at its heart it was about love. Van and Deena were great facilitators and their example helped me to awaken my bliss in a profound and joyful way… I am grateful the course was offered, and grateful I was there. I hope to repeat the class sometime and participate in the blessing giving. —PW, New York City

I had great expectations for this course and they have been exceeded. There will be a before and after this course in my life. I am full of gratitude to you for doing this. —JS, Madrid, Spain.

Truly mind blowing. I experienced and witnessed things I had never seen before, and I have deepened my awakening to an inner knowing that I now have a permanent level of consciousness. —AB, Colorado

Not only that, but one of my Super Traders, who was also a Oneness Trainer, took a picture of the classroom during one of the processes. What you will notice is that there is an Orb floating over the television above the altar. Normally, I would have dismissed this as some sort of defect in the photo or camera. However, when we zoomed in on the Orb, we saw a perfect “Flower of Life” inside it. That blew my mind. Click the image below to see a larger image.

Because of my observations during the last Oneness workshop, I’ve decided to make a few changes for our business. First, I plan to hold several Oneness Awakening Workshops in 2011. Furthermore, I’ve decided to make performance at one of these workshops sufficient for entry into the Super Trader Program. In the past, I required that Super Trader candidates attend the Peak 101 workshop because I wanted to see how that person responded to challenging situations that require them to work on themselves. Willingness to work on your self is the primary factor in a trader’s performance. I need to see someone in action in that area before I allow them to enter the program. So now, if I see someone willing to totally go for it at either Peak 101 or the Oneness Awakening Workshop, then that criterion is met for admittance into the program. In certain cases, I may request a person to attend both the Oneness workshop and Peak 101. Because the Oneness Workshop is only hundreds of dollars rather than thousands of dollars for Peak 101, this change lowers the cost of the entry requirements for the Super Trader Program.

Also, I’ve noticed that Oneness Blessings jump start success. For example, I became a blessing giver in July 2008 and in August 2008 my company produced the highest income that we had seen in 26 years. Every month during the rest of 2008 was either a record month or in the top ten month. And that was during a huge bear market! People don’t usually spend money on our services during big losing periods in the market—or at least that was the prior history. But business success was not the intent of my Oneness Blessings, that’s merely a side effect. As I mentioned in my article, “Down the Rabbit Hole,” becoming involved in the Oneness Movement has had more impact on my emotional well-being than anything else I’ve ever done—and I’ve done a lot in this area over many years.

These blessings also have had a major impact on my Super Traders. For example, after receiving a blessing at one of my workshops, one of my Super Traders entered a very, deep profound state. Ken Long, in his workshops, calls this the “zero state”—the ideal state for trading. When she told me about her experience, I said, “Why don’t you trade from that state?” She had received a lot of Buddhist training in the past and decided to go back to that training so that she could produce that state at will. She soon became a top student and her instructor asked her to travel to India for six months of advanced training. I was happy for her and gave her a six month sabbatical from the Super Trader program to participate in that training.

She returned from India some months back and now trades a few hours each day. On average, she makes 8 trades per day. In the month of November, she made 132.5R—surpassing RJ’s stated goal for the year in just one month. She made money on 84% of her 152 trades. And, by the way, her idea of a mistake is when she takes a trade and is not in the right state. The state itself controls whether or not she is in the flow with the markets.

So what is this Oneness Blessing? The Oneness Blessing channels divine energy into the person getting the blessing. This actually produces a neural change in the brain, slowing down those aspects of the brain involved in the concepts of time and space, which brings you closer to Oneness.

The Oneness Blessing is unrelated to any particular religious faith. Instead,

“. . . it intends to take back every faith to its pristine purity because every form of religion is sourced in a spiritual experience.

“Hence the movement has no independent existence in terms of God, teaching, a code of conduct, or practices that it professes. It strengthens our existing faith by transforming it into a reality through a personal experience.”
(http://www.onenessmovementflorida.org/Discover_your_Faith.htm)

Some people do not participate in the blessings because of certain religious beliefs. While the Oneness movement originates in India, some devout Hindus will not take the blessing for reasons unknown to me. Many Buddhists believe that it is taboo to touch someone else’s head, which is part of the blessing process. When I did a workshop in Germany last year, three Muslims attended and none of them wanted to get a blessing, but I didn’t ask why. Also, some Christians believe there is something devilish about these blessings.

Can you now begin to see why I’ve been saying for some time that your beliefs form a filter through which you experience reality? Your spiritual beliefs are probably the most powerful of them all…even more powerful than your beliefs about yourself.

Nonetheless, the Oneness Awakening Workshop is now a key part of the Super Trader program. If someone is interested in the program, but doesn’t want to do any of the Oneness work, I would lean toward not accepting him or her unless they were willing to work on the fear-charged belief that prevented them from being willing to do that work.

Spiritual beliefs should not be rooted in fear. Einstein once said that the most important question you can ever ask is “Is the universe a friendly place?” Many people, in their spiritual beliefs, find things to fear. You must fear the devil. You must fear God. You must fear your enemies. And all of this leads to building a wall around onesself. This wall is called the Ego and it keeps you separate from all the danger out there. But the fear is really coming from inside and then projected outside. And that’s why we do so much clearing. In essence, A Course in Miracles says it all at the beginning when it states:

Nothing real can hurt you; nothing unreal exists. Herein, lies the peace of God.

The next Oneness Awakening Workshop will be held on January 8th and 9th. We are also holding both the Blueprint workshop and the Peak Performance 101 workshop in January. The workshop I will be presenting most often next year, however, will be the Oneness Awakening. In addition, I’m allowing people who have attended that workshop to attend Peak 202 and Peak 203, without taking Peak 101.

However, it is very important for you to also understand that the Oneness Workshop does not take the place of Peak Performance 101 as our foundation course for trading success. The Oneness Workshops opens the door to personal transformation, but the Peak Performance 101 workshop is the transformational workshop specific to improving your trading.

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 at www.iitm.com.

 

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Workshop

Winter/Spring 2011 Workshop Schedule

Just Added January 8-9	$195	Oneness Awakening	Cary, NC
January 14-16	$2,995 $2,295	Blueprint for Trading Success	Cary, NC
January 18-20	$2,995 $2,295	Peak Performance 101	Cary, NC
Just Added February 5	?	Name Your Price, One-Day Tharp Think Workshop	Cary, NC
February 9-10	$2,995 $2,295	Systems that Outperform the Global Markets Long Term	Cary, NC
February 11-13	$3,995 $3,295	Mechanical Swing and Day Trading Systems	Cary, NC
February 14-18	$3,595- $4,999	Live! Discretionary Swing and Day Trading Systems	Cary, NC
Sydney, Australia Dates Confirmed!
March 11-13	$2,995 $2,295	Peak Performance 101	Sydney, Australia
March 15-17	$3,995 $3,295	Peak Performance 203 aka The Happiness Workshop	Sydney, Australia
Just Added April 2-3	$195	Oneness Awakening	Cary, NC
Just Added April 5-8	$3,995 $3,295	Peak Performance 202	Cary, NC
Just Added April 10-12	$3,995 $3,295	Peak Performance 203 aka The Happiness Workshop	Cary, NC
Coming Soon, Germany Dates
June-July	$2,995 $2,295 Ea.	Blueprint for Trading Success Peak Performance 101	Berlin, Germany
Click here to Learn More about Our Workshops and check out our combo price offers To register for any of these workshops, please contact us at (919)-466-0043.

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Trading Tip

 

Gold Analysis and Strategy: December 4, 2010

by Florian Grummes

Gold Spot Price Analysis

Gold in USD (one ounce = US$1,414.20)

 

Since my latest analysis, gold managed to move up strongly and is currently above US$1,400.00 again. The correction finished as fast as it came at US$1,330.00. As in all previous rallies during autumn/winter, the 50-dMA (US$1,355.01) proved to be strong support. As long as this moving average holds, the uptrend will continue; therefore, the range around US$1,355.00 now has massive support.

Technically gold looks very good again, although a sustainable move above US$1,425.00 may take some time. The upper Bollinger Band (US$1,421.34) currently does not offer much more room to the upside and a consolidation around US$1,390.00 – US$1,425.00 is the most probable scenario. We won’t see prices below US$1,380.00 anytime soon.

The 200-dMA (US$1,232.06) is far away and will meet prices again after this final big up move—probably in the spring of 2011. The short and medium picture is unchanged and still very bullish. My next price target is the Fibonacci Extension (261.80% of the last big correction) at around US$1,600.00. This is very possible until spring 2011. After a final parabolic excess up to US$ 1,600.00 or even US$2,000.00, I expect a longer period of correction and consolidation to follow in spring 2011.

The Dow Jones/Gold Ratio currently is at 8.04 points and continues to move in a very tight range. At the moment all markets are moving up.

Long term, I expect the price of gold to move towards parity to the Dow Jones (=1:1). The next primary cyclical change is still years away. This means we are still in a long term bull market in gold (and also commodities) and a secular bear market in stocks.

In this situation, you need to be aware of the huge difference between nominal and real value of an asset. In nominal terms (US Dollars), the Dow Jones Index made new all-time highs 3 years ago and has recovered most of the losses since the latest crash in 2008. In real terms (which of course is gold), the Dow Jones clearly has been in a bear market since 2000 and never made a new high. You can increase asset prices in nominal terms via inflating the currency (e.g., quantitative easing, low interest rates), but you cannot create real growth and value with it. Although it may be hard to understand, we are clearly on the way to a so-called “crack-up boom.”

“Crack-up boom”: The final short-lived boom that occurs in the last stages of a seemingly endless inflation. The crack-up boom results from a "flight into goods or real values" (q.v.) and marks the end of inflation by a complete breakdown of the monetary system.

The average cost of producing one ounce of gold is now around US$1,000.00. With an average cost increase of 15% per year, gold won´t be able to fall under US$1,000.00 anymore because supply would be immediately limited. The gold bull market is strong and step-by-step we are moving closer to the final vertical phases.

Gold in EUR (one ounce = 1.054€)

 

Due to the massive bailout in Europe and the crisis in Ireland, €-gold broke out to new highs recently. After a short correction including a test of 50-dMA (988€), prices moved up again strongly. €-gold spiked above the upper Bollinger Band (1.068€) during this explosive move. Now we can find two gaps on the chart. The first one has closed already. The second one is still open; however, it might close with a short down move to 1.010€ in the days ahead.

Looking at the weekly chart, especially the MACD Indicator (PPO), it is very obvious that €-gold prices under 1,000€ are things of the past. There is still a lot of upward potential for this move. I think at least 1,150€ is realistic until spring 2011. In the case that the Euro crisis continues with bailouts of Portugal and Spain, much higher prices are very likely.

Gold Bugs Index USD (581.56 points)

 

The gold mining index HUI had a very good recovery over the last three weeks and is now close to the all-time high from the 9th of November. New highs are just a question of time. Only the upper Bollinger Band (576.38) could limit a massive up move. The next resistance is the upper trend channel around 610 points. Besides short-term consolidations, the index should manage to move up to this target soon. At the same time, if the index falls below 530 points, the rally will be over. In this range, the 50-dMA (530.19), the lower Bollinger Band (527.33) and the lower line of the trend channel should offer very solid support. Until now most of the gold mining shares have been heavily undervalued. While gold is above US$1,400.00, gold mining shares do not reflect this. Therefore, 2011 should be a phenomenal year for most of the gold and silver stocks.

Gold COT Situation

Based on my study of the recent COT Data, I believe that in spite of rising prices, the commercials will not increase their short positions. This is very positive and supports a continuation of the ongoing rally.

04/18/2009 = -153,419 ( PoG Low of the day = US$885 )
12/01/2009 = -308,231 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,190 )
05/11/2010 = -282,644 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,201 )
06/15/2010 = -278,944 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,220 )
06/29/2010 = -289,956 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,231 )
07/13/2010 = -248,348 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,197 )
07/27/2010 = -227,555 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,156 )
08/10/2010 = -230,980 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,192 )
08/24/2010 = -264,300 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,210 )
09/07/2010 = -287,680 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,245 / High of the day = US$1,257 )
09/14/2010 = -292,939 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,249 / High of the day = US$1,274 )
09/21/2010 = -292,308 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,272 / High of the day = US$1,389 )
09/28/2010 = -302,740 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,284 / High of the day = US$1,310 )
10/05/2010 = -299,498 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,313 / High of the day = US$1,341 )
10/12/2010 = -300,022 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,340 / High of the day = US$1,353 )
10/19/2010 = -293,082 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,370 / High of the day = US$1,329 )
10/26/2010 = -282,435 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,329 / High of the day = US$1,342 )
11/02/2010 = -276,612 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,350 / High of the day = US$1,359 )
11/09/2010 = -290,953 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,425 / High of the day = US$1,385 )
11/16/2010 = -264,908 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,330 / High of the day = US$1,368 )
11/23/2010 = -263,893 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,356 / High of the day = US$1,380 )
11/30/2010 = -270,469 ( PoG Low of the day = US$1,364 / High of the day = US$1,389 )

Gold Seasonality

Gold continues to be in its strongest seasonal phase of the year. In the last 10 years, every up move that started in summer lasted at least until March of the next year. The only exception was in 2009. At that time, however, gold was heavily overbought after a US$320.00 move (+35%) within four months without any corrections. During the Christmas holiday, precious metals often explode while most of the markets are closed and volume is very thin. This year we could see some big surprises in silver to the upside.

Gold Sentiment

Due to the volatile corrective moves in gold, sentiment has cooled down within the last weeks. Many analysts thought they would see a head-and-shoulders pattern in the gold price. Well, the truth is that gold shook off all the weak hands once again. So a large part of market participants might have missed the last move and will come in again when gold is substantially above US$1,425.00. The put/call ratio for gold futures is presently at 0.643 and has not signaled a medium-term top. There is much more room left until this indicator gives us a sell signal.

Conclusion

Within the next couple of months, gold should be on the way to my next price target at around US$1,600.00. Gold is in a strong parabolic spike that could lead prices higher than many people can even imagine. This month, we could see a move up to around US$1,500.00 - US$1,550.00. Around these levels, we could see another correction of around US$100. The upward pressure for precious metals due to increased inflation expectations is very, very strong at the moment. The October and November corrections were short-lived. Gold found good support between US$1,315.00 and US$1,330.00.

Over the next two weeks, I suspect that gold might be able to move up to US$1,420.00 - US$1,430.00 before a short breather back to US$1,390.00 to cool down overbought short-term indicators. After this short correction, gold should move up strongly until Christmas and the end of the year. Should gold unexpectedly close below US$1,384.00, a double top might be in place and I would be very careful.

Recommendations

• Chinese Gold demand explodes +480%
  http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90859/7220475.html
• Nigel Farage speaks the truth in the EU parliament
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcdnUE4LRMA
• Putin ditches dollar, backs Euro on trip to Germany
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvJEJEGzeU8&feature=player_embedded
  

About the Author: Florian Grummes (born 1975 in Munich) is studying and trading the Gold market since 2003. Parallel to his trading business he is also a very creative & successful composer, songwriter and music producer.

 

Disclaimer »

© 2010 all rights at Florian Grummes  Hohenzollerstrasse 36, 80802 Munich, Germany
English Translation by Florian Grummes

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