| Free Teleconference Next Week...More Details Coming |
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The 17 Steps to Becoming a Great Trader Workshop With Van Tharp and Ken Long May 5-7, 2006, Raleigh, NC $700 Early Enrollment Discount Expires Today |
Van Tharp regards 17 Steps to Becoming a Great Trader as the ultimate workshop that brings all of his concepts together to help traders create a personal trading plan.
With over 50 core questions and exercises focused on the key areas of business planning, objectives, psychology, systems development and risk, you will walk away from this course with a renewed sense of confidence and step-by-step plan of what you need to do to trade consistently and profitably.
�I came to learn/confirm a valuable foundation and blueprint for becoming the best trader I can be. I got that and more. Good sharing of ideas with other attendees. Purpose for existence discussion was an enriching experience that I valued highly. Thank you.� � Paul Beattie, Canada, Past Attendee
Plus, Download the MP3 Audio, "How to Become a Great Trader" with Van Tharp and Ken Long...
A Talk with John Strelecky
Author of The Why Cafe
It's obvious from the response of readers around the world that there is something about The Why Cafe that stirs people's thoughts or emotions. What is it that readers are experiencing that makes them respond this way?
I believe that, at a core level, we all know we have the potential to do something amazing with our lives. We believe that we have some purpose beyond just the normal mundane tasks so many people find themselves doing each day. The question is: How do we do something amazing? What is the first step? I believe that one of the reasons readers are responding to The Why Cafe as they are is that the characters in the story learn the first step. The characters share their experiences and, in doing so, readers relate to them. Readers see themselves in the characters. And, through the protagonist's journey, readers learn about that first step.
And what is that first step?
For the characters in The Why Cafe, and for me as well, the first step was asking: Why am I here? How can I make decisions that are meaningful, choose courses of action that bring fulfillment to my life, and experience the world in all the ways I want to experience it? To do that, I need to understand my PFE, my Purpose for Existing.
The analogy that I often use to describe living without knowing your PFE is that it's like trying to take the vacation of your dreams without knowing where you want to go, or what would make it the vacation of your dreams. Do you pack the car with ski equipment, or a backpack with snorkel gear? Are you staying at the Ritz in the Caribbean, or a bed and breakfast on a mountain top in South Africa? Will it be cold or hot, do you need binoculars or reading glasses? Are you going to be spending ten hours on a bus, or three hours on top of an elephant? Imagine the futility of trying to experience joy on your trip if you don't know the answer to those things. That frustration is what many people go through every day of their lives, because they don't know their PFE (Purpose for Existing).
Can you explain how that might relate to traders?
Sure, the same analogy holds. A trader is probably trying to do what I call "Win the Game of Life". They win the game of life by having the life they want. The question is, would they know victory if they saw it? If victory is working no more than three hours per day, sending your child to Harvard and living in a 5,000 square foot home overlooking the Pacific Ocean, then it requires a specific plan and trading system that will allow you to do this. If victory means backpacking around the world for six months of the year on $40 per day, then that also requires a trading plan, but the strategy would be to accommodate no time at a computer for 6 months and $1200 per month in passive residual income. Both are possible. Quite honestly, anything is possible, but you have to know what victory is before you can set up the strategy and plan to be victorious.
This goes along with Van's core work of setting your objectives and building a trading system that fits you.
In my experience with clients from around the world, when you dig down to its root, defining victory means figuring out why you are here on this planet (e.g. your PFE- Purpose for Existing), and what you want to do to fulfill that purpose. Then you build a strategy and plan to achieve that.
So you want your reader to learn through the experiences of the people in The Why Cafe that there is another way to go through life?
Exactly. This planet, this life experience, can be so amazing. But I will tell you in all honesty that I didn't always understand that. For a long time I lived in the midst of the frustration I was just describing. To speak to your question before, about why readers have such a strong reaction to the book, I think part of it is because I have been in the midst of wondering if the frustration of life was all there was to life. So when I write about that, I write from experience, and readers can tell that. And readers know that I don't preach. I never say: "This is how you have to live to be happy!" or "This is how you have to live to be fulfilled." There are billions of people on this planet and billions of choices for, to use my previous analogy, the "vacation of your dreams." I don't tell anyone what their PFE is. I just help them realize that they have one and that, when they live to fulfill their PFE, that life is the "vacation of their dreams."
What piece of advice would you give to someone who was experiencing either the frustration that you described earlier, or who was seeking a more fulfilling life?
Every day I ask: Why am I here? Do I fear death? Am I fulfilled? And if I am not doing things that fulfill my PFE, if I have fear, if I am not fulfilled, then I know something has to change, and so I change it.
Albert Einstein once defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Sadly, there are many people who, by Einstein's definition, are busy each day perfecting insanity. My advice to them would be to ask yourself those three questions, and then change what needs to be changed so that you are fulfilling your PFE, have no fear of death, and then you will feel fulfilled each and every day.
A book about your Purpose for Living...
John P. Strelecky is the international best selling author of The Why Caf�. This book is being sold in over 36 countries, on all seven continents, and across the United States, it has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
John has been a guest speaker at several Van Tharp Institute workshops and his book has been an inspiration for Van and his staff. When he originally read it, Van liked the book so much he bought 500 copies to give out to people.
Tharp's Thoughts subscribers who purchase this little gem of a book for just $12.95 will receive FREE access to John's latest audio Winning the Game of Life.
Click HERE for more details
or BUY IT NOW.
Van Tharp's Peak Performance Home Study Course
People do not trade
the market. They trade their beliefs about the market. 
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A guide to isolating and understanding your own belief systems in relation to trading.
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Effective training for all levels of traders, from beginners to advanced.
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A model that you can follow to emulate the success skills of profitable traders.
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Discover your trading edge, set yourself apart from other traders.
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Bring more discipline to your trading.
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Learn self-confidence, overcome fear and eliminate self-sabotage.
These are just a few of the benefits of the Peak Performance Home Study Program.
The Power of Conviction
by D. R. Barton, Jr.
�I will listen to anyone's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself.�
� Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Last week I had the grand pleasure of sitting in on Ken Long�s �Exchange Traded Funds� Workshop. What a treat! Ken is a long-time friend and first class human being. I always learn so much when I have the opportunity to just sit back and listen to a real pro go about his work.
But for me, I absorbed one lesson from the whole three day session that Ken never even mentioned explicitly.
I learned the power of conviction. And in a most subtle way.
Ken had conviction oozing out of his pores. Though he might have phrased it differently, everything he does and everything he taught was pointed toward having the conviction to act decisively in a broad range of market conditions.
And equally as important � Ken�s convictions keep him quietly on the sidelines when conditions are not in his favor. Powerful stuff.
Convictions Born of Proof and Re-Proof
Ken never said, �Here�s how I go about developing my convictions.� But the whole course was put together so that Ken�s strategy for developing conviction was clear. Ken�s trading takes a wonderfully disciplined and systematic path from conception to implementation. Next week, I�d like to dig into that path more deeply. But for now, here�s an overview:
1. Observation of a potentially repeatable event in the market.
2. Check to see if the events fit within your belief structure about the markets.
3. Break the event down into component parts.
4. Quantify the component parts.
5. Build a system from those components.
6. Test the system on historical data.
7. Test the system in real-time, with real money.
8. Trade the system.
9. Monitor the system against performance benchmarks.
Ken�s systematic approach takes him from the realm of hoping, to the realm of knowing and allows him to act with unswerving confidence born of the conviction that comes from seeing the idea work over and over again. And that is the essence of stress-free trading.
Next week we�ll dissect Ken�s systematic approach and see what parts might be useful for your trading and investing regimen. Until then�
Great Trading!
D. R.
D. R. Barton, Jr. is the Chief Operating Officer and Risk Manager for the Directional Research and Trading hedge fund group. D. R. has been actively involved in trading, researching, and teaching in the markets since 1986. D. R. has taught extensively in many investment areas including intra-day trading, swing trading, and cutting edge risk management techniques.
His writing credits include co-authoring Safe Strategies for Fin-ancial Fre-edom and co-creator and contributing author on Fin-ancial Fre-edom Through Electronic Day Trading.
D.R. presents the Swing Trading Workshop and Professional Tactics for Day Traders Workshop. Each workshop is only held once each year.
Ken Longs pulls off another stellar performance
What People had to say about the recent Mutual Funds/Exchange Traded funds workshop.
�David Smithers, United Kingdom"Outstanding Value. If you want to become the best 'mechanical discretionary' trader you can be, take this course."
"The fact that there were so many high-powered money managers in the class was quite impressive. Their attendance is a more powerful recommendation than any I could give." �
Fred Link, GA"The little guy rarely gets an opportunity to be mentored by someone who has developed, and can deliver the complete package of trading beliefs and discipline. Add on top of that the privilege of getting to model his best strategies and methods and you have what was for the best value of my trading education experience." �
Grill Kull, CO"Some of the most practical money making advice on trading systems that I have ever received." �
Tony Jackson, GA"This is the third time I've [attended one of] Ken's seminars. And every time it's a whole new experience. He's the best in my book. A unique thinker, a great teacher, intelligent, humorous and last but not least a trader with more than a remarkable track record. I picked up more trading ideas in three days with Ken that I can back-test in 3 years." �
Leo Willert, Austria"It's a great course! Do you want systems? Ken gives you a whole load of systems on a wide range of time frames to choose from. And he does not hide anything from you. All his methods, reasoning's and ideas he offers them to you without holding anything back." �J
ordi Llobet- Serra, Spain
Join both Van and Ken at the upcoming 17 Steps to Becoming a Great Trader Workshop !!
Special Reports By Van Tharp
Click below to read page one of each report, or to order.
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