Blueprint for Trading Success Workshop: On-Demand Video Course

Originally streamed over three days and divided into 12 chapters, this workshop is now available as a convenient video-on-demand course. The segmented format allows you to learn at your own pace, making it easier to absorb each section before moving on to the next.

This is a video-on-demand course with a recording of the 3-day workshop presentation and PDF slides. You are purchasing access to the full workshop recording with all available study materials. Note that some bonus materials or resources mentioned in the course may no longer be available.

Blueprint for Trading Success Overview

This course is a complete structured program that will launch you to a more advanced skill level in your trading. It is about transforming your approach to treating your trading like a business instead of a hobby, so the transformation work does not rely on interaction as much as, say, any of the Peak Performance series.

You’ll learn strategic, focused steps that will serve you throughout your entire trading career.

Overall it’s a course that offers an immense amount of information about what most would consider the unattractive part of trading, yet it is the most critical to successful trading. — Chad Wagner

During these intensive, hands-on three days, you will learn 17 clear and concise tasks to master that will take your trading from ho-hum to visionary. You will leave with a thorough checklist of action steps to guide you to a higher level of performance.

In just three days, you’ll see how all of Van Tharp’s strategic trading concepts fit into one seamless design for more predictable trading results. Your trading will never be the same.

This course illustrates the relationships among the steps so that the process is logical and reasonable. Moreover, Van Tharp will show you how to take each step experientially, so you really get it. Dr. Tharp is an expert in delivering elicitation questions to bring forth each person’s most important issues.

“This is the best conference I have ever attended. This is the hardest conference I have ever attended. I had to ask myself some of the most difficult questions I’ve asked in a long time…Van is not just a great trading coach, he is a great person. You are a breath of fresh air in an industry full of hucksters.” — S.W., Rancho Mirage, CA

“The course far exceeded my expectation and threw up ideas which had just not existed on the mental horizon. Apart from being a better trader, this course will make me a happier and more complete human being. A stupendous course.” — Satyendra Kumar, India

This workshop is about transforming your approach to treating your trading like a business instead of a hobby, so the transformation work does not rely on interaction as much as, say, any of the Peak Performance series.

What You’ll Learn In This Workshop:

This transformative workshop goes far beyond typical trading education. It’s a step-by-step blueprint designed to integrate every critical component of successful trading—from mindset and strategy to planning and execution. Whether you’re struggling with consistency or looking to build a complete trading business from the ground up, this course will give you the tools, insights, and structure to take control of your trading journey. Here’s a breakdown of the powerful concepts and skills you’ll gain:

1) Develop a Complete Trading Business Plan

Learn how to build a fully integrated trading business plan that aligns with your personality, beliefs, and financial goals. You’ll complete practical worksheets and exercises that clarify your vision and set a roadmap for success—turning trading from a hobby into a structured, professional endeavor.

2) Master the 17 Key Tasks of Successful Traders

Discover 17 strategic, results-driven tasks that will help you elevate your performance, gain deeper insights into your trading process, and improve your decision-making with more clarity and control.

3) Identify and Reshape Your Trading Beliefs

You don’t trade the markets—you trade your beliefs about the markets. Learn how to uncover and transform limiting beliefs about yourself and trading that may be holding you back, and replace them with empowering perspectives that support long-term success.

4) Define Clear Trading Objectives

Clarify your goals, risk tolerance, and performance metrics with guided self-assessments. You’ll receive a list of 25 essential trading statistics and learn how to use them to measure, refine, and improve your performance.

5) Understand the Missing Ingredient in Most Trading Plans

Learn the crucial component that many traders overlook—one that determines whether your success is sustainable or short-lived. This single insight could change the way you plan and execute trades forever.

6) Align Your Strategies with the Big Picture

Explore market trends and macroeconomic forces to develop a “top-down” approach. You’ll learn how to identify high-potential strategies that fit current and future market conditions—and how to build three customized systems based on your personality and objectives.

7) Discover and Leverage Your Personal Edge

Pinpoint the unique advantages you have as a trader—whether you’re an independent investor or managing capital professionally. Learn how to turn those edges into consistent results and embed them into your trading systems.

8) Build a Robust Contingency Plan

Prevent disaster before it strikes. Learn how to develop a thorough worst-case scenario plan across eight critical areas of your trading business, using real examples and peer collaboration. This alone could save you months of planning time.

9) Assess Yourself with Proven Psychological Tools

Use Dr. Tharp’s elicitation questions and personality profiling tools to uncover core issues, psychological blocks, and hidden strengths. Learn how to apply this self-knowledge to your trading routine for better discipline and performance.

10) Improve Your Self-Discipline and Daily Routine

Discover a top-down approach to self-discipline that can transform not only your trading results but your overall well-being. Leave the course with three daily practices that sharpen focus, increase accountability, and build trader confidence.

11) Apply What You Learn Immediately

You’ll finish the course with a full set of completed worksheets, a personalized action plan, a draft business plan, and a structure to continue building three trading systems. You won’t just learn theory—you’ll leave ready to take strategic, focused action.

Key Concepts You’ll Explore:

Here are a few of the key concepts that will be explored in-depth at this workshop.

• You need to assess your beliefs about trading, and about yourself. 
• Nobody actually trades the market. Instead, you only trade your beliefs about the market. At first, this is a difficult concept to grasp. But if you begin to jot down some of your beliefs about trading using “I am,” “I feel,” “I experience myself as,” statements, you will see what I mean. Your beliefs about trading guide your trading results. It is easy to get to a certain point in this type of exercise and get stuck. 
• In this workshop, you will be guided through the exploration of your belief system about trading. You’ll be amazed at the results.

“The BluePrint for Trading Success is a fantastic course! An incredibly comprehensive plan to take anyone willing to apply the steps taught to the level of a master trader. In fact, so much material is covered it would have been overwhelming if not for the open approachableness of Van and Melita to answer any and all questions. I feel like I’ve just been placed in the fast lane to market success! This seminar is very much worth the investment.” — Peter Swanson, Lufkin, TX

Knowing Your Objectives:

Objectives set the roadmap for the entire system development process.

System experts know that understanding your objectives thoroughly is half the battle in developing a system, but most people have never taken the time to consider their objectives.

Your objective is your goal, your target—what you want your system to accomplish.

How would one know how to get someplace if they didn’t know where they were going first? There are endless configurations of objectives. The point is you need to know specifically what it is that you are trying to attain; only then can you develop a successful, profit-driven plan of action.

In this workshop, you will work through questions to help you determine exactly what you want out of your trading system.

Some of those questions include:

• What percent would you like to increase your account by each year?
• What percentage drawdown are you willing to tolerate?
• What kind of statistics will you collect on a regular basis to monitor your trading progress?

You Will Receive 25 Specific Statistics to Get You Started!

“This course clarified for me how to get my business plan done, and actually enjoy doing it.”— Paul, MD

“The workshop was excellent and did a very effective job of showing how to develop a business plan for trading. The balance between business planning, developing trading strategies, and working on myself was just right.”— Mark McDowe

Know Your Key Ingredient:

We’ve found that most traders and investors are missing one key ingredient in their objectives—and that’s the ingredient that will make them financially free.

For example, at a recent workshop, Dr. Tharp was told of a trader who made a 1000% return in one year. But that trader was missing this critical ingredient. And it’s probably the difference between whether or not all of that profit will be put to good use or lost in future trading. At this new workshop, we’ll tell you this key ingredient and teach you how to include it as part of your objectives.

“The course was very worthwhile for me. I find that the broad summary of the overall process of developing skills allowed me to put things in a better perspective. I have a much better idea of which areas I need to put the most emphasis and work on. I also found the interaction with the other participants invaluable.”— Craig Herdman, Phoenix, AZ, Past Attendee

Which Markets Will Perform Well in the Next 5 Years?

Successful traders know how to access the big picture of what the market is doing overall. As part of your blueprint, you’ll learn Dr. Tharp’s interpretation of the big picture and how to determine the big picture for yourself. This is a very important skill, and if you really take the time to do it, it is probably worth the price of the workshop all by itself.

Your business plan will need to include three strategies that are compatible with the big picture. Although there are thousands of systems out there, there are not many types of strategies. Learn the essence of the key strategies that you could use, the general picture of how they work, and how you can adapt them for yourself.

We hear from our students that they know business planning is important, but in some cases, they don’t even know what a trading business plan should look like. You’ll leave this workshop knowing what to strive for and with a template in hand to follow as you progress.

“Prior to coming to this workshop, I had come to a realization in trading that I needed help structuring a business plan, knowing how to approach and measure strategy development and how to deal with personal traits that reoccur and are not beneficial to me and trading. These expectations were met and exceeded.

Two things I found particularly valuable

1) How personal beliefs translate into market beliefs all the way to the specifics of each particular strategy.

2) The structure of materials and workbook is laid out to take home and continue with the work easily.”

— Jim Sterk, Lynden, WA

Personal Edges Set You Apart From the Crowd.

Having an edge in the markets isn’t just a slight advantage; it could be the pivotal difference in your success. So it’s very important to list your edges in your business plan and to be able to capitalize on them. Learn the key edges that almost any investor has over market makers or institutional investors. Or if you are a CTA, hedge fund, or portfolio manager, learn your specific key edges.

Eight Critical Areas of Contingency Planning:

Learn the 8 critical areas of contingency planning.

In this workshop, we will share mistakes that other traders have faced so that you can find out how to generate an extensive worst-case contingency plan. You’ll learn strategies of how to deal with each disaster so that they minimize the effect on your trading business. Learn the key areas around which your worst-case contingency plan should revolve and get a good start on creating them at this workshop.

This process could take you six months if you did it by yourself!

However, one of my super traders did the hard work for you and is willing to share the essence of his worst-case contingency plan. In addition, in past workshops, the entire group has usually been able to double the number of things you need to plan for to prevent disaster. What’s it worth to you to save six months in planning time? Well, that’s one of the key benefits of this workshop.

“I came to learn/confirm a valuable foundation/blueprint for becoming the best trader I can be. I got that and more. Good sharing of ideas with other attendees. The purpose of existence discussion was an enriching experience that I valued highly. Thank you.”

— Paul Beattie, Canada, Past Attendee

We’ll show you a formula that will allow you to compare your system with any other system in the world and rank that system. Thus, you’ll know whether you have a weak, average, good, excellent, or superb system. This is new information that we’ve just introduced into our curriculum, and you’ll learn it here.

Would you like to know a simple way to get to know your system well without a lot of costs? Using this method, you’ll be able to understand if your backtesting was accurate. We’ll cover this on day two of the course.

You’ll have worksheets from which to write your business plan and a structure through which you can develop three systems to fit the big picture. It’s a lot of information, but think how you’ll feel when you understand and have all of this key information at your fingertips!

Who Knows What You Want Better Than You?

Here are just a few of the exercises we’ll be covering in the critical self-assessment portion of the workshop:

• Learn your personality type and how it impacts trading.
• Learn about the most important attitude that you must have as a trader and assess yourself on it.
• Learn about your beliefs and values and how to assess yourself.
• Go through worksheets to assess your key issues so that you know what could happen that might really interfere with your trading.

“I think the outline of the course itself is extremely helpful. It does give me a blueprint of what needs to be done. I have a really good idea not only of all the work I have to do but the order to do it in.” — Ed Reardon, IL

One of these steps will separate you from other traders and launch you toward top trader status.

This step alone will leave such powerful tools at your disposal that you’ll wonder why you never thought of doing these things before. You will be guided through each of these suggestions on a step-by-step basis to show you what you need to do at home. And if you take home at least three of these with the commitment to really doing them, you’ll be unstoppable.

“A seminar that covers an enormous range of topics, but all were covered adequately. Very much appreciated Day 3—this was surprising to me as to just how critically important this is. The opportunity to learn this in a “laboratory” environment was terrific: I can’t imagine that my work on PPC [Peak Performance Course] would be the same (I’ll start it later this year) without this seminar. I suspect that I will look back at this seminar as a pivotal career moment (but I suspected this beforehand…)”

— Forrest Ciesol, La Jolla, CA

You’ll learn how to develop a top-down approach to discipline. You’ll get worksheets to begin this process and exercises to complete so that you can apply what you’ve learned as soon as you return home. Few traders have the kind of discipline we’ll be teaching, but you’ll leave the workshop with all the tools you need to apply and use this strategy. And if you combine top-down discipline with regular self-work, you’ll be amazed at the difference in your trading.

“My self-discipline had been slipping for trading and with it was going my drive. This course delivered the structure for getting back on track. Thank you.” — Richard Fotiades, Port Jefferson, NY

Learning and studying are very important factors in any endeavor; however, the only true way to be successful as a trader is to take action. Get in there and learn from your experiences. If you are truly dedicated to being a successful trader, then after this workshop you will have all the tools that you need to set yourself up to win!

We’ll finish this workshop with a review of all of the steps, and you’ll get a chance to start developing your plan to put everything into action when you return home.

What You Can Expect:

When you leave this workshop, you’ll have:

• Completed worksheets so that you can develop your own trading business plan. And when you leave, trading won’t just be a hobby for you. You’ll have the core of your new plan to turn it into a professional business. We find that less than 5% of all traders and investors have a business plan to guide their trading. But when you leave this workshop, you’ll have everything you need to join them. Imagine what a boost that will be for your trading.

“Challenging and very helpful. The best part was the complete structured program for becoming a great trader, around which the workshop is based, and the 52 exercises and worksheets that we are taking home. I really feel that I have what I need to continue this work at home in the upcoming months.” — Daniel Fylstra, Incline Village, NV

• You’ll also have the logic worked out for how to develop at least one new trading system designed for your personality. It comes from the intersection of three sets of beliefs that you have, and we’ll show you exactly what to do. You’ll have worksheets completed on the major steps involved in developing a great trading system. When you get home, all you’ll need to do is put the steps into practice. Most people fill their heads with all the details of various trading systems and never even begin to develop a sound system. However, when you finish day two, you’ll have a broad overview of exactly what you’ll need to do. Perhaps for the first time, you’ll be able to see the whole forest, instead of just the trees. You’ll have the structure of what you need to do. How do you think you’ll feel when you have that in place?
• And lastly, you’ll have a daily procedure worked out to improve the most important factor in your trading—you. You’ll have three daily routines in three distinct areas that, if you put them into practice, will make you a better, happier, and more effective trader. In addition, we’ll help you develop the structure for a top-down approach to discipline, which I believe is the key to your success. What you’ll have in place are critical advantages that few other traders have. And this will not only improve your trading; it will improve your entire life. And isn’t that what you really want?

“… I thought the course was very well-organized and delivered. I especially liked the ordering of the material as it followed the sequential steps necessary to become a great trader. The course content will provide an excellent resource, not only in finishing my business plan but also in keeping me on track in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found the content very useful. I actually feel like I’ve come away with a complete “blueprint” I can use to make sure I’m doing all the necessary steps to become and maintain myself as a great trader. It will be very useful in finalizing my business plan.” — Rick Freeman, Dublin, CA

Who Will Benefit From Taking This Workshop?

This course is best suited for someone who is:

• Interested in taking their trading to the next level by understanding how psychology affects their trading results.
• Interested in thoroughly understanding what trading systems are and how they allow position sizing strategies to help meet their objectives.
• Interested in learning how to integrate their psychology, systems, position sizing strategies, and the big picture, etc., into a comprehensive business plan.

Who might not find great value in this workshop:

• A trader with consistent profitability for several years or longer.
• A trader with a well-developed business trading plan of 100 pages or longer.

We can not stress how important this workshop can be for successful trading. The workshop could quickly pay for itself in preventing one loss you may have otherwise taken or from the profits of one new idea. More importantly, what you learn from this workshop will benefit you for a lifetime. If you are not sure if it is for you, feel free to call or email us, and we will be happy to help you decide

About Your Instructor, Dr. Van Tharp

Dr. Van K. Tharp was a globally recognized authority in trading psychology, position sizing strategies, and trader transformation. With a doctorate in psychology and over three decades spent researching and modeling the behaviors of top-performing traders, Dr. Tharp revolutionized the way individuals approach trading success.

He is the visionary founder of the Van Tharp Institute, an educational organization dedicated to helping traders master the mental and strategic aspects of trading. What made Dr. Tharp truly unique was his deep psychological insight into what separates exceptional traders from the rest—and his ability to teach these insights through structured, practical methods.

Dr. Tharp was the only trading coach featured in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards, where his inclusion alongside legendary traders speaks volumes about his impact on the industry. His methods are not based on theory alone—they’re grounded in years of studying how traders think, how they act under pressure, and how they can create systems that align with their personal strengths.

He authored 11 groundbreaking books, including bestsellers like Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom, Super Trader, and The Definitive Guide to Position Sizing Strategies. His work has been translated into multiple languages and continues to serve as a foundation for both aspiring and experienced traders around the world.

Dr. Tharp’s insights have been featured in major financial outlets such as Forbes, Barron’s, Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities, and Investor’s Business Daily. Through live workshops, home study courses, and personal coaching, he helped thousands of traders overcome limiting beliefs, build winning systems, and create lasting change—not just in their trading results, but in their lives.

When you take this course, you’re not just learning strategies—you’re learning from a master who understands that real trading success starts from within. Dr. Tharp’s legacy lives on through the powerful tools, frameworks, and mindset shifts you’ll explore in this program.

Testimonials for Van’s Books, Courses, and Workshops

“I read your two books and found them extremely interesting. I’m incorporating your strategies into my personal life and finances…I have read a great number of books and articles on these subjects. However, I found your strategies much more logical and original than any other ones.”

— L. Ginette, Quebec City, Canada

“I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the life-changing training experience I had five years ago at your seminar in North Carolina… My trading has resulted in over 2 million in profit this year… prior to my experience in your program five years ago, I would have to say I had never been a truly profitable trader. My sincerest thanks and appreciation for the study you have made of “modeling” other professional successful traders and imparting their correct psychological habits and techniques to those of us who desire to attain the status of trader for profit.”

— J.C.

“Just wanted to drop you a line to thank you for all your help and to give you some feedback on my progress… after completing your course and developing a game plan and journal, I started back to trading…To make a long story short, I have had 8 trades since the end of July when I started trading. I lost four and was profitable on four. The last two were also quite spectacular, netting a total of over $37,000 in two weeks…your course and inventory Profile helped me to get a hand on my more self-defeating tendencies.”

— E.W.

Read more testimonials.

Frequently Ask Questions