The Power of Beliefs in Trading Course

“The most significant work that anyone can do to increase market returns is self-work. Really understanding yourself and how you think can give you an edge that others in the market don’t have.” —Van Tharp

The Power of Beliefs in Trading: Course Overview

The course lessons take only a couple of hours to watch, but we recommend spreading them out over a week or two. Each section includes homework exercises that require about an hour to complete—and that’s where the real transformation happens.

The Power of Beliefs in Trading course shows you how your beliefs shape your trading performance. By learning to replace harmful beliefs with empowering ones, you’ll boost your confidence and achieve better results.

Your Beliefs at Work

Most traders think all they need is a great trading system to make a lot of money in the markets. That’s why so many companies are out there selling systems, software, or platforms with all kinds of promises. People buy that stuff – in droves – but they still get confused or frustrated when they lose money.

Shouldn’t people who are smart and successful be able to figure out how to make money trading?

One of the key secrets to trading well is not in the system. It’s not even “technical” at all. We have proof of that.

Over the years at the Van Tharp Institute, we have had thousands of people attend our technical workshops where successful traders teach their profitable systems. They give the rules to the students so the students can go home to reproduce their great results. Some of those same people come back six months, a year, or more later to attend our Peak Performance 101 Workshop, where we focus on trading psychology. These folks typically say something like, “The system works, but I can’t follow the rules. It’s something about me.” At its core, that “something” is beliefs. How so?

Here’s a simple example of your beliefs at work.

Let’s say a trading system entry rule states that you go long at the close of the second bar up after a 10-day low. But you don’t buy there. Maybe you “just can’t”. Here are some possibilities about what’s going on:

• You just don’t believe the entry signal will get you into a good trade.
• You believe you are going to mess up the trade somehow anyway, so you don’t enter.
• You wait for one or two more bars because you don’t believe one bar is enough to truly confirm a trend change. 
• You have a belief that you should change the rules to work better than they do.

Notice a commonality among those scenarios? Those reasons for inaction are based on beliefs.

For another trader, the problem may not be inaction but overtrading—jumping into a trade for all kinds of reasons. While the symptoms are different in this case, the core issue is the same—beliefs. Beliefs are driving inaction or too much action for different traders, and not any system, platform, or chart.

After researching thousands of traders, Van Tharp came to understand that “internal” factors were far more important in trading success than external factors. Van said, “You don’t trade the markets, you trade your beliefs about the market”. He understood that idea at a very deep personal level as well. He had lots of experience making trading mistakes in the past and had even blown up several accounts.

The good news?

Van developed a plan to help traders with their beliefs. The process involves a few simple steps: figuring out your beliefs, determining which beliefs help your trading and which ones hurt, and then changing the non-useful beliefs.

To help introduce traders to this process, last year, Van worked with VTI instructor Gabriel Grammatidis to develop The Power of Beliefs in Trading eLearning course.

Why Gabriel? Isn’t he your Forex and Futures instructor?

Yes. Gabriel does teach two powerful systems workshops for VTI. But Gabriel was also a very high achiever in the Super Trader Program. He first entered the program over 15 years ago. What many people may not realize is that Gabriel was a star student in the Super Trader Program, which is more about beliefs, mindset, and self-development than it is about a specific system or trading style. Before Van’s passing, he hand-picked Gabriel as his first choice to work with him on this beliefs topic. They drafted the outline for the content together. You’ll also see that Gabriel will be a co-instructor for the Peak Performance 101 Workshop because Van also singled out Gabriel to help fill this role for his mastery of the topic. Gabriel uses the material in his systems work, coaching work, and most importantly in how he lives his life. 

What You Will Learn:

The Power of Beliefs in Trading Course consists of easily digestible recorded content, divided into six sections. Van set the following objectives for the course:

1. You gain a new, broader understanding of the importance of Beliefs for your Trading
2. You understand how Beliefs can be very detrimental to your Trading
3. You discover the Beliefs that run your Trading
4. You understand that Business Success does not necessarily translate into Trading Success
5. You are able to apply a Tool to examine your Beliefs
6. You find out how to know when your Beliefs are well-aligned for Trading

Dr. Van Tharp and Gabriel developed this course to deliver on those objectives through these lessons:

• Lesson 1: The critical factor to improve Trading Results is working on your Beliefs
• Lesson 2: You only trade your Beliefs about the Markets
• Lesson 3: Knowing your Beliefs is an important step in your Trader Growth
• Lesson 4: A very useful Belief in Business might not be very useful for Trading
• Lesson 5: You can examine your Beliefs and change the ones that are non-useful for Trading
• Lesson 6: When your Beliefs are aligned, your Trading is free of conflicts

Course Details

The lessons will take just a couple of hours to watch,  but they should be spread out over a week or two. Each section has homework exercises that will also take an hour or so to complete. While the lessons contain great information, the homework is where you feel the results.

The Power of Beliefs in Trading course will help you understand how your beliefs affect your trading. When you learn how to transform your harmful beliefs into useful ones, you start to grow your confidence and improve your results.

As Van said, “The most significant work that anyone can do to increase market returns is self-work. Really understanding yourself and how you think can give you an edge that others in the market don’t have.”

Types of People Who Will Benefit from this Course:

• Traders struggling to follow their trading system rules consistently
• Those who experience frustration or self-doubt despite having a good trading system
• Traders who tend to either overtrade or hesitate to take trades
• Anyone wanting to understand how their beliefs impact trading decisions and results
• Traders seeking to build greater confidence and mental clarity in the markets
• Individuals looking to transform limiting beliefs that hold back their trading performance
• Experienced traders who realize that mindset is as important as technical skill
• Those interested in self-development as a path to improved trading success
• Traders who want practical tools to identify and change harmful beliefs
• Anyone aiming to gain a psychological edge that goes beyond just learning systems or software

About your instructor, Gabriel Grammatidis

Gabriel Grammatidis is a highly experienced trader and dedicated coach who has been teaching at the Van Tharp Institute since 2008. With over 35 years of trading experience in Forex, Futures, Cryptos, Stocks, and Options, Gabriel offers a depth of expertise that few can match.

Before becoming a full-time trader, Gabriel enjoyed a successful corporate career at PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors. Driven by his passion for markets, personal growth, and helping others succeed, he transitioned into trading, coaching, and system development, pursuing his dream of financial independence.

Gabriel is best known for guiding traders to achieve consistent success in less than a year. As a rule-based discretionary trader—a style Dr. Van Tharp identified as the most effective—he specializes in trading systems built on visual pattern recognition. His students learn to “train their eyes” to spot high-probability trade setups with confidence.

In his programs, you’ll work alongside Gabriel to create weekly and daily trading plans tailored to market conditions. You’ll apply three proven trend-following systems and practice trades (ideally on a demo account) using your own platform. With Gabriel’s personalized feedback, market analysis, and live trade execution—often demonstrated via a projector—you’ll gain practical skills, sharpen your decision-making, and build the confidence to succeed in the markets. Learn more about Gabriel Grammatidis.

Frequently Asked Questions