How to Develop Winning Trading Systems That Fit You Workshop

The How to Develop Winning Trading Systems That Fit You Workshop delivers a comprehensive learning experience with 12 structured core lessons, delivering 8 hours of focused video content. In addition, you’ll gain access to 11 days of bonus training session recordings, featuring in-depth Q&As with students, reviews, and extended instruction. That’s over 17 hours of additional video content designed to maximize your learning and results.

Now available as a video-on-demand course, this workshop offers nearly 25 hours of total video content—all accessible on your schedule. The segmented format lets you move through the material at your own pace, giving you time to reflect, implement, and build your trading system step by step.

This is a video-on-demand course that includes the full recording of the original workshop presentation, along with PDF slides and all available study materials. By purchasing, you gain access to the complete workshop experience at your convenience. Note that some bonus materials or resources mentioned in the course may no longer be available.

How to Develop Winning Trading Systems That Fit You Workshop

Do You Want Bigger and More Consistent Profits From the Market?

If you want consistency and would like to make profits from the market, you’ll want to get access to this workshop. We’ll show you little-known, closely guarded secrets that you’re not likely to find unless you accidentally stumble upon them yourself.

Are you a low-risk investor who just wants to make small, consistent profits each month with only an occasional loss? We can show you how to develop a system that will allow you to develop a unique methodology that will give you that kind of consistency!

Are you a gutsy trader who’d like to make yearly profits of 100%, 200%, or even 1,000% per year? Although risky, it is possible, and we can show you how to do it! The interesting thing is that you can do it in such a way that the only money you’re risking is the money you’ve already made from the market. That’s real leverage!

Why Develop My Own System? Isn’t It Easier to Just Go Buy a System With Proven Results?

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of trading systems that work. But most people, after purchasing a preexisting system, will not follow the system and trade it exactly as it was intended. Why not? Because the system doesn’t fit them or their style of trading.

One of the biggest secrets of successful trading is finding a trading system that fits you. In fact, Jack Schwager, after interviewing enough “market wizards” to write two books, concluded that the most important characteristic of all good traders was that they had found a system of methodology that was right for them.

When someone else develops a system for you, you don’t know what biases they might have. Developing your own system allows for compatibility with your own beliefs, objectives, personality, and edges.

Furthermore, most of the system development software for sale really encourages some of the trading biases that I see as detrimental to overall trading success.

For example, give a system developer enough leeway, and that person will have a system that perfectly predicts the moves in the market and makes thousands of dollars on paper with certain historical markets. Most software allows people to optimize to their heart’s content. Eventually, they will end up with a meaningless system that makes a fortune on the data from which it was obtained but performs miserably in real trading.

Most system development software is designed because people want to know the perfect answer to the markets. They want to be able to predict the markets perfectly. As a result, you can now buy software for a few hundred dollars that will allow you to overlay numerous studies over past market data. Within a few minutes, you can begin to think that the markets are perfectly predictable. And that belief will stay with you until you attempt to trade the real market instead of the historically optimized market. Many trading accounts have plummeted from this very thinking. One “sure-thing” trade placed without a proper position sizing™ algorithm can wipe some traders completely out of the game.

Only about 5% of the world’s traders and 20% of the world’s investors consistently make big money. What these winners do is not complex. In fact, simplicity is one of the keys to making money. And you can do it too! I’ve modeled this process and can teach you how to develop your own trading system that fits your own style of trading.

Workshop Objective

Our objective in this workshop is to teach you what you need to know to develop your own system or to modify one that someone else created. The curriculum is based on learning the process of developing a system, not learning any specific system for a particular market or time frame.

This “nuts and bolts” level of system information will help you understand how to build a system from the ground up or modify a system developed by someone else to better fit you. So much of what is marketed as trading systems, however, is not the “complete package”, including all of the parts a trading system should have to function. Attending this workshop will help you evaluate available trading systems either directly or through workshops.

VTI’s workshop instructors are required to offer complete systems and to remove their personal biases and non-useful beliefs about prediction from their systems. Just knowing more about the proper functioning of trading system elements and the system as a whole can help you better trade systems for Forex, Equities, or Futures, whether you place 50 trades per day or 50 trades per year.

Three Critical Secrets You Can Adopt to Develop a Superb Wealth-Building Formula

If you concentrate on these three secrets, which 95% of all traders and investors totally ignore, then you can vault yourself into a class that only a few have been able to achieve.

1. You must concentrate on the most important task of system development. If you do it properly, it will take at least half of your time during the development process. When you learn what it is, you’ll say, “Of course, it’s important”, but you’ll still probably spend very little time on it.

That critical task is developing sound objectives.

Jack Schwager, after writing two Market Wizard books, concluded that the most important characteristic of the top traders and investors he interviewed was that they had adopted a trading system to fit them. But to develop a system that fits you, you need to think about what you really want. There are at least 30 questions you need to address when you develop a trading system. It’s not a trivial task.

What is an objective? Your objective is your goal, your target. It is the things that you want your system to accomplish.

Objectives set the roadmap for the entire system development process. How would one know how to get somewhere if they didn’t know where they were going first? It is easy enough to see that if one trader had an objective such as “I want a system that trades long-term stocks, that requires my attention only once each week and makes 20% per year” compared to a trader’s objectives of “I want to actively trade my mother’s retirement account for four hours each day, without holding overnight positions” two completely different systems would be required.

The objectives or goals are very different. There are endless configurations of objectives. The point is, you need to specifically know what it is that you are trying to attain, and only then can you develop a trading system that will help you attain it.

2. A good trading system has 10 key components. Most people ignore six or seven of them when they do their research. In fact, you’ll rarely see a book on systems development that covers more than six of them. That’s the limitation the average trader has in doing research. You want big profits with as little risk as possible, so you want every advantage possible when you start to develop such a system.

You should be able to take advantage of 8 of these components easily after the workshop. And, with a little more effort, you’ll be able to use all 10. If you use all 10 with competence, you’ll be among the top 0.1% of all traders and investors in the world.

3. Most people concentrate on the least important element in trading system design—entry. They also ignore the most important element—position sizing strategies. At the How to Develop A Winning Trading System That Fits You Workshop, you’ll learn at least three types of position sizing systems that will help you lower your overall risk, while at the same time, helping you achieve more consistent performance.

If you’re more adventurous, we’ll show you how to go for really big returns using the market’s money. When you use these super moneymaking techniques, you could make 1,000% on your money each year, risking only the money that the market has given you.

You’ll learn exactly how one trader turned $10,000 into $1.1 million in less than a year. In addition, we’ll also show you how a group of traders has taken out $100 million from the market over the last 10 years! Learn the advantages and disadvantages of both these styles.

Seven More Reasons Why You’ll Want to Attend This Workshop

1. You’ll get specific ideas for making better market entry and exit decisions. You’ll also get specific position sizing principles. Your workshop materials will contain lots of valuable information you’ll want to review over and over again.

2. You’ll be introduced to the psychological pitfalls that hold back so many people. Just knowing about them will help you avoid them.

3. “I attended the first course that he hosted in London on System Development. I was just starting up trading and was steadily losing money, as were the three others in my group. We four were quite new to trading, whilst everyone seemed to be professional traders. I still trade and sometimes wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t attended that course. Did it make me an instantly successful trader?

No, of course not, but what it did do was almost instantly stop me from being a losing trader, and that was a part of the battle won because it meant I could continue to work on my trading knowledge without having sleepless nights. Prior to that course, I really was waking up sweating, wondering what I was getting myself into. I don’t have that problem any longer, though I don’t mind admitting that I do lie in bed sometimes thinking whether I was a bit hasty in putting on a trade. When I first learned about the psychology of trading, I didn’t really fully appreciate it at the time, but I do now.”

—M. Campling

4. You’ll learn new approaches to the markets and new techniques for analyzing them. There are many concepts behind most systems. Most of them, including some of the most popular, are meaningless. But you’ll learn about the ones that work best.

5. You’ll get practical trading ideas, talk with fellow traders to compare notes, exchange ideas, and make new friends who share your interests. This kind of networking alone can be worth thousands of dollars. Some great trading teams have developed through contacts made at these workshops.

6. You’ll learn the ten elements of a good trading system. In addition, you’ll go through trading games that will teach you the relative importance of the various components and how to apply them to your situation. These market games really drive home the important points about system development. In addition, they’re fun!

7. You’ll be assigned to a group to work on trading system development exercises to enhance your learning experience.

Dr. Tharp’s Discoveries

During his years of research, Dr. Tharp discovered certain little-known secrets that are essential if you want to develop an effective system that’s right for you! After coaching side-by-side for years, Mr. R.J. Hixson is still presenting Van’s timeless insights and research information.

Dr. Van K. Tharp was a trader, author, modeler of peak performance results, and most importantly, a peak performance coach willing to help all of his readers and students make more money and lead more effective lives. He collected psychological profiles from over 4,000 traders and investors and personally interviewed hundreds of top people in the field to determine what makes them excel and how they make immense profits.

In 1988, Jack Schwager interviewed 16 of the world’s best traders and investors for his best-selling financial book, Market Wizards. Dr. Tharp was also interviewed as a peak performance coach in that book.

Dr. Tharp studied top traders and investors for over 20 years. In his research, he identified how the best traders and investors achieve peak performance. All of these traders and investors developed a sound methodology, and one key portion of their success came from doing the right sort of research.

To duplicate their success, you must focus on the essential elements of system design while meeting your objectives. This work has been the backbone of this workshop for years.

Workshop Testimonials

“Since I left North Carolina, I have had an opportunity to spend a week with my client to re-create what I learned in the course. We got down and listed our core beliefs, our objectives, and looked long and hard at our biases. From this information, we designed an entry, exit, and simple position sizing strategy that fit our objectives. Actually, we have a working system, and it turns out that just a little modification to that existing system is what we really want to meet our objectives. Now I’m all excited; I can hardly sleep because I was handed the tools and methodology I needed to verify and backtest this new system effectively. I just need to type faster to keep up with my enthusiasm.”

— B. Cupps

“This class really provided the mechanics and practical methods of how to create a workable system.”

— G. Kapraun

“Our team had a great experience in learning how important it is to lock in large R-multiple profits. This was a great lesson with real-world applications.”

— Rick Freeman

“Intense and very challenging. Good structure and focus.”

— Jordi Llobet Serra

“A very valuable experience that drove home the importance of knowing risks, expectancy, position sizing, and profit protection!”

— Roman Franko

“Excellent! Even better than the first time I took it 8 years ago. No one does it better. Best information for real-world system development and trading (giving us the best tools/equipment).”

— Robert De Boer

“I feel energized. The trading game has shown me for the first time what happens to other traders as they trade, what emotions and thought processes they go through. As a result, I am no longer scared of ‘them”[those] who are on the opposite side of my trades.”

— L. Valls

“Incredible weekend! I was a ‘kid in a candy store’ with so many like-minded people committed to trading and personal excellence.”

— Warren Beam

“The course exceeded my expectations. It was very worthwhile. It put into perspective the steps required to design a workable system. Sessions on exits, entries and money management were particularly interesting for me. I made some new friends that I will stay in contact with. I received excellent value for my time and money.”

— Mike McMinn

“Excellent! I wish I had taken this course before I started trading. The instructors have shown me lots of practical ideas to take home.”

— Pat Fong

“I was very pleased. As a novice investor/trader, this course did an excellent job of laying out the pieces of the trading puzzle.”

— C.D., Indiana

“Well thought out and well presented. Tremendously informative…IITM presenters have only the best interests of their audience at heart. This is plainly evident in their enthusiasm, willingness to share and competence.”

— R.F., New York

“Excellent. Games really honed in for me the importance of objectives and how they drive my trading system development, and that there are really several types of systems needed (trading, accounting, etc.).”

— D. H., Ohio

“Very useful and quite enlightening due to the emphasis on goals and objectives, which work as a great filter on making decisions.”

— D.M., South Africa

“Many intricate complications became defined and simplistic.”

—T.S., Bahamas

“I feel like I’m going home with bags of gold! It’s a goldmine of information.”

— B.C., Utah

“Superb. Every section of the seminar was stuffed with information. I couldn’t take notes fast enough (so I opted just to listen). Lots of creative ideas worthy of further research.”

— R.W., Colorado

“Super. The cost of the seminar was nothing in comparison to the value received.”

— J.D. Georgia

“Excellent! I never thought of how many separate elements went into a system. I now have the knowledge and confidence to develop a system for myself.”

— B.F., New York

“Very useful to see first-hand the real risks of ruin, over-trading, etc. The seminar was very helpful to me in laying out the specific tasks I must complete.”

— B.C., Ontario, Canada.

“It was the most practical and best seminar I’ve attended in the last 10 years. Enjoyable too . . .”

— W.R., Illinois

“The seminar helped me put things in perspective. I came away very satisfied. I have a new calm, yet resolve to improve my trading, and the confidence to know I can.”

— J.A., Illinois

“This helped me to understand the proper steps to take in my system development. I thought it was a good balance between the technical (Chuck) and the theory (Van).”

— A.C. Florida

“Overall, I found the seminar to be on the cutting edge of trading psychology and system development.”

— L.M., Louisiana

“Hugely informative, it has everything from the necessary basics to the very complex.”

— Tania Northey, Australia

“I believe it easily has the best (most valuable) content of any course I have done.”

— Peter Deck, Australia

“Gave us what we could not achieve by reading books.”

— David Sanders, Australia

“Excellent. Very productive and stimulating. Worth traveling a long way for.”

— Richard Luke, Australia

“Very good. Gave me a thorough grounding and many new ideas.”

— David Blissett, UK

“It was just what I needed to help me understand the comprehensive nature of a system (it isn’t just an entry and exit procedure). I can use my creativity and enjoy the process of developing my strategy. I learned to dig in a try something.”

— Craig Jorgensen, MI

“Any trader who does not participate in this course has already made a major trading mistake. The principles of a successful trading plan are very rarely if ever, explained fully except by Van Tharp.”

— S. Redgrave, Australia

Types of People Who Will Benefit from this Workshop:

This workshop is designed for traders and investors who are serious about creating systems that fit their unique objectives, risk tolerance, and trading style. If you see yourself in any of the groups below, this workshop is for you:

• Traders Seeking Consistency
  You’re tired of random results and want a system that delivers steady, reliable profits month after month.

• Aspiring Super Traders
  You aim for exceptional returns—100%, 200%, or even 1,000% a year—and want to use advanced, low-risk techniques to get there.

• Low-Risk Investors
  You prefer a conservative approach and want small, consistent monthly gains with limited downside.

• Frustrated System Buyers
  You’ve bought systems that didn’t work because they didn’t fit you. Now you’re ready to build or adapt one that does.

• DIY System Developers
  You want to create or refine your own trading system—from the ground up—so it aligns with your beliefs, goals, and strengths.

• Traders Struggling with Discipline
  You know the psychology behind your trades matters—and you’re ready to build a system you can actually follow.

• Analytical Thinkers & Tinkerers
  You enjoy backtesting, tweaking, optimizing, and want to understand every part of what makes a system successful.

• Traders Who’ve Blown Accounts
  You’ve made costly mistakes before and are ready to rebuild smarter, with a proven framework for risk control.

• New Traders Wanting a Strong Start
  You’re just getting started and want to build a solid foundation using real-world system-building techniques.

• Experienced Traders Ready to Level Up
  You already trade, but you’re looking to sharpen your edge, improve risk management, and develop a complete system.

• Investors Wanting a Systematic Edge
  You’re an investor who wants to move away from emotional decisions and toward data-driven, rules-based trading.

• Psychologically-Aware Traders
  You want your system to align with your mindset, values, and decision-making style—so it works with you, not against you.

• Risk-Conscious Traders
  You know that position sizing and expectancy are more important than entry points—and want to master those components.

• Traders Focused on Long-Term Wealth
  You’re building more than just short-term gains—you’re designing a wealth-building machine that lasts.

• Independent Thinkers
  You’re ready to break free from guru-dependence and build a system that reflects your own thinking and strengths.

• Traders Tired of Predictions
  You’re done trying to guess the market—and ready to rely on robust, proven principles that actually work.

• Collaborative Learners
  You love learning in a group, exchanging ideas, and being part of a community of committed traders.

• Market Wizard Modelers
  You want to follow in the footsteps of legendary traders by understanding how they built their success, then applying it.

• Overwhelmed by Too Much Info
  You’re drowning in conflicting advice, tools, and indicators. This workshop gives you clarity and focus.

• Traders Ready to Build a Complete System
  You understand that a real trading system includes much more than entries and exits, and you want to master all 10 components.

Is This Workshop Right for You?

Are you willing to roll up your sleeves and work at designing objectives and risk parameters for yourself? If you are, and you’re willing to apply the principles we teach you, then you’ll love this workshop. You’ll leave with the keys to a system that’s just right for you!

We’ll teach you one of the real secrets of success—how to use all the system building blocks to design a trading system in such a way that it fits your personality and style of trading or investing. In the process of learning how to do this, you’ll probably come up with dozens of winning systems that will work because they’ll be based on criteria that fit your situation.

The concepts and ideas you will learn in this workshop could easily improve your trading overnight. Most importantly, the information you learn, once it’s properly applied, could easily vault you into a new superstar wealth and success status within a few years. You’ll understand why super traders continue to make money while everyone else is losing their shirts.

Our objective is to really help you. We know the quality of the course and the quality of the materials that will be presented. Consequently, we know that chances are, you’ll be delighted with it.

Most traders who are really committed to doing research will probably spend a significant amount of money and time just to find the same information that will be presented at this workshop. That’s why Dr. Tharp has done the hard part for you! The research has already been done. Think about how much time, energy, and money you can save by coming to this workshop. You’ll focus on the more important aspects of trading system development and Dr. Tharp’s model. Most of you will probably save tens of thousands of dollars—certainly many times the cost of the workshop.

This workshop will teach you everything you need to know to design a consistent, top-performing system that is just right for you.

About your instructor, RJ Hixson

RJ Hixson is a seasoned trading mentor, systems thinker, and transformational educator known for his ability to blend psychology, strategy, and personal growth into a clear, practical framework for traders. With over 15 years of experience guiding traders, investors, and entrepreneurs, RJ has helped thousands of people rethink how they approach the markets—and how they approach themselves.

After earning his MBA from the University of North Carolina, RJ began his career in the defense industry. A growing curiosity about human performance and decision-making led him to the Van Tharp Institute (VTI), where he became a dedicated student, instructor, and eventually one of the most influential voices in the organization.

RJ completed the rigorous Super Trader Program in 2012 and later served as VTI’s Vice President of Research & Development. In that role, he co-developed and refined many of the institute’s flagship courses and workshops, translating Dr. Van Tharp’s groundbreaking work into tools that traders could apply to both their systems and their psychology.

As the instructor for the How to Develop a Winning Trading System That Fits You workshop, RJ brings a structured, step-by-step approach to system development—based on Van Tharp’s 10 key components—while encouraging deep self-reflection to ensure every system fits the trader who designs it.

RJ’s calm, insightful teaching style makes even the most complex ideas accessible. He has authored dozens of articles, facilitated belief-change processes, and helped traders at every level—from complete beginners to high-performing professionals—unlock more clarity, freedom, and consistency.

Today, RJ continues his mission as Co-Founder of TenHundred Marketing, where he supports conscious entrepreneurs and traders in building wealth and impact through systems-based thinking. His work is grounded in the same transformational principles he taught at VTI: radical responsibility, clarity of purpose, and the inner work required to create lasting success.

Whether you’re just getting started or evolving your trading approach, RJ offers the depth, experience, and compassion to guide you through meaningful and lasting change. Learn more about RJ Hixson.

System Development Articles:

• What Can We Expect from a Trading System?
• What is a Trading System?
• Exits – Are Your Stops Too Large or Too Small?
• System Performance, Parts 1-4
• Don’t Take Just Any Ol’ Entry

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 contact us, and we will be happy to help you decide.

Frequently Ask Questions