# Van Tharp trading course



## MS+Tradesim (6 November 2007)

Has anyone done this?

http://www.iitm.com/products/course/peak_performance_crse.htm

I'm contemplating it and would appreciate any comments if you have done it.


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## tech/a (6 November 2007)

With your experience with tradesim and understanding of Money management and its application with regard to maximizing R/R Id be surprised if you got a lot out of it.


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## MS+Tradesim (6 November 2007)

Thx tech. Looking for more pyschological training. Can always use more of that. Seemed the course might cover it. (Yes, have read the usual books.)


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## Temjin (6 November 2007)

I would highly recommend it too. One of the best trading psychological training out there. Understand the cognitive biases in full details and ways to improve your internal conflicts.


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## tech/a (7 November 2007)

*M/S*.

Don't know if this will help but I over came any psychological issues by cutting my parcel size down.
I did this by risking only 1% and not the 2% initially.
Now at times I'll risk 3%.
I have a trading account which has nothing to do with any other finances.
If I lost the lot it wouldn't effect my life.

Trading then comes back to the numbers game!


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## sleepy (7 November 2007)

M/S.

Just to add to Johns train of thought .... How long has it been since youve read Nicks 'Adaptive Analysis'  ... i.e., the first 50 pages. 


sleepy


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## Kauri (7 November 2007)

I have a 4 DVD set sent to me by a friend.. called Secrets to Profits.. by Van Tharp... have no idea what is on it... will get time to go through it one day soon I guess and let you know what I think.. I think.. if you were in Perth I'd give you a loan of it..  
 Cheers
..........Kauri


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## MS+Tradesim (7 November 2007)

*Temjin[/i]

Have you done the course? How did it help you? I've heard from others who don't recommend it, so wondering what are the positives?


Tech

Thx for the suggestion. Money management is under control though.


Sleepy

Honestly, I was disappointed by the first 50 pages of Nick's book. It didn't seem to add to what I've already learnt. But as I've said money management is not an issue. I'm looking more for pyschological education to deal with biases and internal conflict resolution.

Kauri

I live a loooonnnggg way from Perth but thx for the offer anyway. *


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## sleepy (7 November 2007)

m/s

no problem .... Tharps trader blog is a reasonable intro to the psych side of things ...
http://www.smarttraderblog.com/2006/12/

sleepy


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## Temjin (12 November 2007)

MS+Tradesim said:


> *Temjin*
> 
> Have you done the course? How did it help you? I've heard from others who don't recommend it, so wondering what are the positives?




Sorry for the late reply.

I have attached a copy of the special report by Van Tharp. Read the second last article on "Spring Clean Your Trading - Ten Important Questions to Ask Yourself" and should give you a little more detail on what you may be getting out of the Peak Performance trading course. 

In case people are wondering on the "price" tag on the top right corner. This report was offered free for download as a promotional offer on Van's site. (or I think it was from an email that I receive from him regularly)

Regardless, all I can tell you is that the course is extremely useful and very enlightening. The only way you can get benefit out of the course is to be fully committed to the whole training. 

Gym is a physical conditioning.
This course is a type of mental conditioning. You will find it hard, actually, VERY HARD, initially to overcome your own personal biases to do his exercises. Trust me on that one.  

I can understand why people don't recommend it. Their personal biases got to them and have not really open their minds to this kind of mental conditioning. They are still searching on the holy grail of trading psychology. This is as close as it can get, that is whether you believe it or not. 

Good luck.


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## nizar (12 November 2007)

The Van Tharp money management report is pretty good.
But all the stuff in it is covered in his book.


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## MS+Tradesim (12 November 2007)

Temjin, thx for the followup. I will reply moe when i get *a new keyboard. I spilt vodk*a on this oe *and it seems to h*ave soe hiccupts. Hoe this is underst*and*able.


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## yonnie (12 November 2007)

no wonder you need more psychological training.

best to do away with the vodka first and really face your problems


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## howardbandy (12 November 2007)

Temjin said:


> This course is a type of mental conditioning. You will find it hard, actually, VERY HARD, initially to overcome your own personal biases to do his exercises. Trust me on that one.
> 
> I can understand why people don't recommend it. Their personal biases got to them and have not really open their minds to this kind of mental conditioning. They are still searching on the holy grail of trading psychology. This is as close as it can get, that is whether you believe it or not.
> 
> Good luck.




Greetings --

Your comment about how hard it is for people to overcome their personal biases in order to trade a system is the reason I recommend that everyone involved in trading system development design their own objective function.  Your own objective function will incorporate your own personal biases, and trading systems that score well using your objective function will be easier to trade.

Thanks,
Howard


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## MS+Tradesim (12 December 2007)

Alriggghttyyy....!

After weighing up pros and cons and people's experiences from here and PM replies, I outlined the possibilities as:

*Worst case:* course is total waste of money. Since the cost of the course is way less than my average loss which is only 0.5R then it's not a lot of money.

*Base case:* I get one good idea which pays for the course. I've lost nothing and gained an insight

*Best case:* I gain a number of valuable insights and additional control over my psychology resulting in ongoing enhanced performance.

The R/R is overwhelmingly in my favour so took the plunge and bought it. Along with the course I ordered the _Investment Psychology Inventory (IPI)_ which seems to be a Myers-Briggs type assessment but focused on trading rather than overall personality profiling.

The course material arrived in a professional layout (would hope so for the price). It includes 5 manuals and 4 CDs. Please see the link on OP for more info on content. I've briefly skimmed through the manuals and it looks like good stuff - all focused on psychological development. The point of the IPI is to outline areas which need special attention and the course material is structured so that you can dive straight into the relevant sections. As my IPI was balanced and extremely positive, I've decided to just go through the material from start to finish. (If anyone is interested in seeing what the results of the IPI look like I'm happy to post them).

Will update as I progress.


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## MS+Tradesim (3 January 2008)

Still working on this. I'm reading the whole course through once to get an overall feel and then go back through in detail and work through all the exercises.

Can honestly say this is excellent and that I can't think of anyone who wouldn't benefit so long as they are prepared to tackle their psychology. My trading is already very profitable with over 150% closed trade profits from calendar '07 and another 100% or so in profits still open. *My point in mentioning this is only that even very profitable and successful traders can benefit.* As long as I really assimilate this course material I would expect calendar '08 to be another successful year even with USA going into recession. It's very timely dealing with this stuff at the moment.

I'll give a brief review once I've finished reading through the first time.


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## johenmo (14 August 2008)

MS+Tradesim said:


> I'll give a brief review once I've finished reading through the first time.




Any update?  I've just finished the book ",,,financial freedom".  Is the course good for newbs or is it more suitabel for those with a bit more experience?


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## schrutzen (27 August 2008)

*trading courses*

well theres a lot out there...  it depends on their focus

www.econtrader.com 

its for free and perfect for people thinking about trading stocks plus  www.investopedia.com is more comprehensive and has dictionaries on terms.
you couldnt run out of resources on the net and most importantly
buy investment books they help a lot...


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## kam75 (12 September 2008)

MS+Tradesim said:


> Has anyone done this?
> 
> http://www.iitm.com/products/course/peak_performance_crse.htm
> 
> I'm contemplating it and would appreciate any comments if you have done it.




Dr Van K. Tharp is an author, psychologist and trading coach, and generally is well respected among traders.  Author of the well known 'Trade You Way to Financial Freedom and now his later, 'Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom'.  

I'd probably read his book first.  But otherwise he's probably one of only a handful of people that I would ever pay to sit and listen to.

Regards
kam75
_____________________________
http://www.sharesmadeeasy.com


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## Temjin (12 September 2008)

Let say I've read the entire course TWICE before even started trading almost 2 years ago and it has helped me tremondously in many ways. It paints me with a mindset way before I started trading and I would say it might well have provented me from wiping out my trading account. You still make mistakes, yes, but at least you know WHY you have made it and know how to fix it. 

(unlike those who have made mistakes and still have absolute no idea why they keep doing it) 

So if you are committed, then get it. Highly recommended.


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## MS+Tradesim (11 October 2008)

johenmo said:


> Any update?  I've just finished the book ",,,financial freedom".  Is the course good for newbs or is it more suitabel for those with a bit more experience?




Oops, only just remembered this thread. The course is fantastic *if* you are prepared to accept that *you* are responsible for your success or failure. It would be great for beginners who are serious about becoming successful traders/investors. Those who just think the market is a bit of excitement, those who already think they know everything, and those just looking for a "you-beaut" indicator need not apply.

The course is not about the methods of trading. It is about mindset. I believe it will benefit anyone who genuinely wants to become a good trader/investor, including intermediate/advanced traders who have hit a wall and need to refocus.

 I'm about to go through it again before starting live forex trading.


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## mjp (2 November 2008)

great thread Temjin and MS+Tradesim

i'm looking at the course also, so appreciated your comments - could you give an idea of how long it would take to complete the course?  I see on the tharp website they suggest 2-3 months at 2-3 hours a day - would it be practicable (and still effective) to work at it full time and complete in two-to-a-few weeks? 

I am familiar with the expectancy, money management and R-multiple content etc from Trade your way to Financial Freedom, have traded for several years and appreciate the value in the personal psychology side of this, which is what appeals about the course, plus the approach to tailoring a trading plan to match personality.

cheers
mjp


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## MS+Tradesim (3 November 2008)

Howdy mjp, I found some time today!

My first time through only took me a week or two. I didn't do all of the exercises straight up and there's plenty I still haven't done but will get to shortly as I'm now going through it all again, slowly and thoroughly.

So yes, if you get stuck in you can do it quickly but keep in mind the point of it is to adjust the way you think. Doing that will take as much time as it takes. I'm still finding things that I *know* but had not implemented due to ingrained subconscious patterns of thought which are yet to be replaced. The last week though I've made massive strides forward in those areas and today's trading showed me that the old patterns are being replaced. It just takes lots of positive reinforcement of good patterns to defuse the old ones.


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## mjp (5 November 2008)

Many thanks for that MS+TS

best of luck with that pattern changing - sounds like worth a look

cheers
MJP


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## Wysiwyg (12 December 2008)

Van Tharp`s newsletter this week brought up the idea of 10,000 hours practice to be successful.

Obviously a nominal figure.From someone accumulating experience I thought the best bit of advice was to spend the nominal 10,000 hours on the way to success learning the right way to trade.

Learning to trade is like starting to read a book.You don`t know exactly what will happen next page but after awhile you get a fair idea.Here`s to experience and the road that leads us there.


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## Agent_Jon (26 January 2009)

Hi all,

I'm a newbie to this forum but have been working through the Van Tharp course.  

Interestingly, the first few pages suggest to stop trading until you have finished the course and *'you will save yourself a lot of money'*.

Not surprisingly I didn't take that advice and learnt the hard way.  Every time I overcome my overconfidence and ego and return to the materials I am back on track.

Knowing the information and reading the books in one thing, but application and execution is another art. The course is focused on application.  But you only get out what you put in, and I think most people fail because (including myself) they don't have the discipline to finish a book or course properly, not because the course is no good.

Agent_jon


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