Speaker Profiles. RJ Hixson (How to Develop a Winning Trading System That Fits You, Blueprint for Trading Success):

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2 Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.: Van K. Tharp is the most consistent, astute, and systematic researcher of human behavior that you ll probably ever meet. He has personally worked with and interviewed hundreds of traders to determine what makes them excel in their profession. He has also collected and analyzed psychological profiles from over 5,000 traders and investors. He is a leader in the profession of coaching traders. There are other trading coaches, but when Dr. Tharp conceptualized this process over 25 years ago, he was one of the first people ever to do so. Attending his courses means that you are learning from the very best. He is known as being one of the elite in his field. He carefully crafted all of the information from his studies into a model that people like you can adopt to improve your own skills. In fact, when Jack Schwager, interviewed 16 of the world s best traders in his original Market Wizards book, he also elected to interview Dr. Tharp as a Peak Performance Trading Coach. Now, you can join the thousands of fortunate traders and investors over the years who have already learned the secrets of Dr. Tharp s carefully researched model for successful trading. Through his courses, you will learn for yourself the incredible difference that adopting this model can make both in terms of trading profits and in improving your life. That s the amazing thing about Dr. Tharp s model, not only will you improve your profits, but you re also likely to become more successful in all aspects of your life. Dr. Tharp is the founder and President of the Van Tharp Institute, which is dedicated to the improvement of traders and investors through both psychological and mechanical means. He is the author of the Peak Performance Home Study Course. And has written such McGraw-Hill classics as Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom, Financial Freedom Through Electronic Day Trading, and Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom, along with many other courses and programs. His new book Super Trader: Make Consistent Profits in Good and Bad Markets was published in Libby Adams, PhD., D.D. (Advanced Peak Performance 202): Libby Adams, author of Voices of Selves, is the Executive Director of the Academy of Self-Knowledge, where Transformational Education is the focus. She is a highly skilled presenter and educator. Speaker Profiles Libby is a Master Practitioner of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and specializes in Transformational Meditation, a process she has developed that reprograms the erroneous thought patterns of the subconscious mind. It has been used successfully for the past fifteen years with countless students all over the world. RJ Hixson (How to Develop a Winning Trading System That Fits You, Blueprint for Trading Success): RJ Hixson is thevice President of Research and Development at the Van Tharp Institute. In that role, he manages the development of new courses and products that help traders transform their trading and their lives. He is a former client of the Van Tharp Institute (he completed the Super Trader program in 2008). Previous to joining the Van s staff, RJ worked for several companies that ranged from startups to some of the largest organizations around, notably the US Air Force and IBM. He is first and foremost a loving husband and devoted dad. Ken Long (Systems That Outperform the Global Markets Long Term, Swing and Day Trading Systems for Equities and ETFs): Ken Long, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army with a Masters Degree in System Development, is a professor of tactics and logistics at the Army s Command and General Staff College. He has developed the Tortoise Method of mutual fund switching, a trading system that takes about five minutes each week with a goal of outperforming the S&P 500 Index. He has applied the core beliefs and operating principles of the Tortoise System to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and developed a comprehensive set of strategies that are effective in generating low-risk trading ideas in multiple time periods across the world equity markets. His case study method of training develops the skills, habits and confidence in students to apply these Tortoise methods in their own style of trading. Ken is a trader, and writes a daily and weekly market assessment for mutual funds and exchange traded funds. He is a proud husband, dad, and a ju jitsu practitioner. Robert Tharp (Great Systems for Bear Markets Workshop): Robert Tharp started trading in He s been heavily exposed to a variety of markets and trading styles, starting as a runner from the floor of the CBOT and expanding his learning to off-the-floor trading futures. He has experience day trading, swing trading and trading longer term. He has been the Branch manager for three different day trading offices. Due to being exposed to such a wide variety of markets he knows what types of trading style to offer based on whatever the current market conditions demand. Robert s methodologies and unique perspective on risk/reward fit in well with the Van Tharp Institute s core principles. See Enclosed Order Form for Registration Information Enrollment Discounts/Pricing Workshop Schedule

3 Van Tharp Institute Workshops Blueprint for Trading Success Through his modeling work with top traders, Dr. Tharp has discovered 17 key steps that will ensure consistent success as a trader. In this workshop, you ll work through this step-by-step plan, doing such things as assessing your beliefs, your skills, your resources everything you need to create a business plan for trading, and much, much more....pages 5-7 Peak Performance 101 Learn techniques for developing rock solid discipline and how to overcome fear. Learn to pull the trigger and center yourself, so that your mind is focused and sharp. You will go through exercises that will make a real difference in your trading and your personal life. This is Van Tharp s signature course for traders and investors....pages 8-11 How to Develop a Winning Trading System That Fits You There are three critical secrets that you can adopt to develop a superb wealth-building formula. If you concentrate on these 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....pages Systems That Outperform the Global Markets Long Term Most people tend do the exact opposite of what big funds do and they pay a price for trading this way. What the big mutual funds are doing with their money well before they complete their big transactions and jump in ahead of them? Wouldn t that be a huge advantage over other investors? We re going to show you exactly how to do that....pages Swing and Day Trading Systems for Equities and ETFs What if you had a comprehensive framework that adapted with a changing market and gave you a way to evaluate opportunities in a disciplined, consistent and efficient manner? By the end of this workshop, you ll understand what the market is doing at a very high level, as well as exactly how you are going to trade when the opening bell rings....page NEW! Great Systems for Bear Markets Learn five systems specifically created to make money in bear markets. Three are short systems that work in quiet or bear markets. Study the systems logic, observe them traded live, and then practice trading these systems in class with a historical data simulator. The Van Tharp Institute designed this workshop and these particular systems for our clients who want to take advantage of declining markets a condition that is expected to reappear through the coming years during this secular bear market....pages Advanced Peak Performance 202 (and NEW 203!) Experience a dramatic personal reinvention. You ll learn how to make a declaration for a trading vision that might seem impossible now. Uncover the beliefs that shape your success and find out what you can really accomplish. Learn about the games we play the most important psychological breakthrough of the new millennium....pages Super Trader Program Information Our Super Trader Program is the ultimate program for serious traders. It requires a full two-year commitment and gives you the opportunity to do extensive work with Dr. Tharp during that period....page 27 Satisfaction Guarantee and About Our Courses...Page

4 Where to Start... Van K. Tharp has over 25 years of experience coaching traders, and in conjunction with his world class instructors, he has put together a trading curriculum that is unrivalled in the industry. Whether you are starting out on the trading journey or have traded for many years, there are fundamental strengths that will help you to be the best trader you can be, and our goal is to give you the tools and materials to help you do just that. Our workshops have a great reputation both for their content and for the quality of attendees that frequent our events. This incredibly high caliber of clientele keeps coming back, so first and foremost you will meet amazing people. Familiar faces continue to repeat or attend new workshops both for the educational experience and the networking opportunities so we must be doing something right! To help you make an informed decision, we ve created the following outline on how our workshops fit together. I. Tharp Fundamentals: the Backbone of Great Trading Although these workshops are called Foundation Workshops, they are definitely not basic. They provide the core material that everyone who wants to become a great trader needs to master. We regard them as the starting point for your trading education regardless of your background or trading experience. These core workshops are just as valuable for the short term trader as they are for the long term trader because what you learn is not dependent on the market traded or the timeframe that you choose to trade. These courses help you master yourself, understand what you need to do for profitable trading, learn to develop a blueprint for trading/ investing success, and learn how to develop systems that fit who you are. Blueprint for Trading Success (Great first workshop) Peak Performance 101 (Also a great first choice) How to Develop a Winning Trading System that Fits You II. Specific Strategies and Proven Techniques in Various Trading Styles We offer a number of relatively technical workshops on trading systems. Can you take these courses without learning the fundamental material? Yes you can, but doing so is like learning how to write a specific computer program without even knowing the basics of computer programming or understanding the potential mistakes that you could make. Our second tier courses help you to either master trading in your chosen time frame, or give you the tools to decide what style of trading might fit you best. These workshops are packed with great strategies that work. These workshops go in depth in their specific trading area and incorporate the key Van Tharp principles and rules into their trading strategies. Systems That Outperform the Global Markets Long Term Swing and Day Trading Systems for Equities and ETFs Great Systems for Bear Markets III. Pre-requisite Material We have two courses and one program that have pre-requisite courses, so we ve put these at the last level. Advanced Peak Performance 202 and 203 (Peak 101 is a pre-requisite.) The Super Trader Program (Peak 101 and Dr. Tharp s approval required.) I first attended a Van Tharp/IITM workshop with the goal of improving my trading and investing. What I found, after that one workshop, was that Van could help me have a happier and more fulfilling life. The change in me, as a person, was something that my wife noticed immediately. I eventually joined the Super Trader Program, now with the goal of learning the skills to take myself to higher and higher levels of happiness and achievement. Trading is certainly a part of this, and the freedom that trading affords me to create the life that I want is tremendous. My training with IITM has made me a much better trader in terms of profitability, consistency, and the ability to continually improve my skills. Edward Pomicter, MD, IITM Super Trader, PLC Owner, Count de Monet, LLC

5 Blueprint for Trading Success Presented by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D. Through his modeling work with top traders, Van Tharp has discovered the blueprint for trading success that will ensure you consistent prosperity as a trader. Now you can learn from the expert as he guides you through the precise steps that you should take. Dear Trader, This course is a complete structured program that will launch you to a more advanced skill level in your trading. You ll learn strategic, focused steps that will serve you throughout your entire trading career. 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. 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 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 relationships among the steps so that the process is logical. Moreover, Van Tharp will show you how to take each step experientially, so you really get it. Dr. Tharp is an expert in asking questions to elicit 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... S.W., Rancho Mirage, CA, Past Attendee Let s talk about 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, Van Tharp will guide you through the exploration of your belief system about trading. You ll be amazed at the results. 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 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, Past Attendee Objectives set the road map 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. Here are some sample questions: 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? Van Tharp will give you 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 5

6 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 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 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 What markets will perform well in the next 5 years? Successful traders know the big picture of the markets. 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 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. I found two things particularly valuable: 1) How personal beliefs translate through market beliefs all the way to the specifics of each particular strategy. 2) The structure of materials and workbook is laid out to easily take home and continue with the work. Jim Sterk, Lynden, WA Personal edges set you off 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. Learn the 8 critical areas of contingency planning! Dr. Tharp 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 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? I came to learn a valuable foundation for becoming the best trader I can be. I got that and more. Purpose for 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 cost? Using this method you ll be able to understand if your back testing was accurate. We ll cover this on day two of the course. You ll have worksheets that will help you create your business plan and a structure through which you can develop systems to fit the big picture. It s a lot of information, but think how you ll feel when you 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 evaluate yourself on it. Learn about your beliefs and values and how to assess yourself. Go through worksheets to determine your key issues so that you know what could happen that might interfere with your trading

7 One of the 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. Dr. Tharp will go through each of these suggestions to show you what you need to do at home. If you take home at least three of these suggestions 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 without this seminar. I suspect that I will look back at this seminar as a pivotal career moment... Forrest Ciesol, La Jolla, CA You ll learn how to develop a top-down approach to discipline. 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 selfwork, 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 end this workshop with a review of all of the steps, and you ll start to develop a plan to put into action when you return home. What you ll have when you leave this workshop: Completed worksheets to help you develop your own trading business plan. 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. When you leave this workshop, you ll have everything you need to join them. Imagine what a boost that will be to your trading. The best part was the complete structured program...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 the details of various trading systems and never even begin to develop a sound system. However, when you finish Day 2, 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. 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 happier and more effective trader. In addition, we ll help you develop the structure for a top-down approach to discipline, which we believe is the key to your success, giving you critical advantages that few other traders have. This will not only improve your trading, but your entire life. And isn t that what you really want? I especially liked the ordering of the material as it followed the sequential steps...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 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 A Message from Dr. Van Tharp: Some people take years to discover just a portion of what you are going to learn in this workshop. But you ll do a lot more than just learn it. I have worked closely with traders and the markets for over 25 years. I ve seen the good and the bad, which has given me experience and insights into what works and what doesn t work in the trading game. The same questions, fears and lessons continue to rear their heads year in and year out; therefore, I have designed this course to let you know that you don t have to go it alone. Many traders have come before you and this is your opportunity to learn their successes and mistakes, and what it really takes to be a great trader. My commitment is to give you a thorough overview of what it takes to be a successful and consistent trader, and a 17-step action plan to be the great trader that you truly want to be. Join me for an exceptional three days on your trading journey. Van K. Tharp 7

8 Peak Performance 101 Presented by Van K. Tharp You ll leave this investment Boot Camp knowing, for the first time in your life, why some people consistently make profits over and over again, while other investors and traders are erratic and unsuccessful. More importantly, you ll be able to overcome self-sabotage and develop rock-solid discipline in your performance in the markets. You ll learn why this course was featured in Forbes magazine and why the magazine was quoted as saying, Tharp s disciples swear by the results. Spend Three Profit-Provoking Days Sharing the Unhedged, Uncensored Secrets of the Man Who Has Helped Produce More Great Traders and Investors Than Anyone Else You Are Ever Likely To Meet. If you have a high aspirations for your trading, let Van Tharp share his significant experience and expertise to show you what peak performance trading is all about! Dear Colleague, Dr. Van K. Tharp is an author, modeler of peak performance results, and most importantly, a peak performance trading coach willing to help you make more money and lead a more effective life. He s collected psychological profiles from over 5,000 traders and investors. He s personally interviewed hundreds of top people in the field to determine what makes them excel and how they make immense profits. When 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. Dr. Tharp has been studying top traders and investors for over 25 years. In his research, he s learned how the best traders and investors achieve peak performance: all of these traders and investors developed a sound methodology. Here s What s Waiting for You! Day 1 The three key ingredients of success. You ll learn techniques for developing rock solid discipline and how to overcome fear. Be able to pull the trigger and center yourself (kind of like skiing), so that your mind is focused and sharp. Day 2 How the best traders trade Dr. Tharp s proven model for Peak Performance Trading. Learn about position-sizing based trading systems and low-risk ideas. Day 3 Overcoming self-sabotage you will go through exercises that will make a real difference in your trading and your personal life. What s in it for me? What can I expect to learn? There are seven money-making benefits awaiting you. They ll help you make more consistent profits, keep your losses smaller and be more relaxed about your trading. 1. Learn the three ingredients of success. You must know this information, at least unconsciously, if you are to prosper. These three mental ingredients are a must in any task you do in order to perform like a Market Wizard. Most people don t even know about them, which is why success is so difficult to duplicate. But after Peak Performance 101, you ll thoroughly understand how these three key ingredients can control your life. Most of all, you ll know how you can control them

9 The day after leaving the Peak Performance course I profited $2,400 in trading profits. What impressed me was the level of calm I was able to achieve using the techniques learned at the course. No serious trader should consider trading for a living without the benefit of your course. I have a whole new outlook on my future, both trading and personal. H.W., NY I just wanted you to know how much I took your million dollar ideas from the Peak Performance course to heart. Today marked one month since the course, and I have realized a 37.5% return on my entire portfolio in that month (true return, not annualized) and most of that in the past two days. I am fired up. Now I have to deal with those capital gains taxes. Oh well. P.S., FL Overcoming Self-Sabotage The Peak Performance 101 workshop not only helps you install Dr. Tharp s model, it also helps you overcome selfsabotage. You ll be able to free yourself from internal conflicts that keep you from performing at a peak level. 1. Do you have a performance ceiling where you fall apart or stop doing well? Do you earn $100,000 and then just seem to stop trading? Or, do you reach the million-dollar plateau and then start losing heavily? Those are common patterns. 2. Understand the components of a low-risk idea. The trick to compounding your personal wealth is to trade low-risk ideas. Low-risk ideas are found everywhere not just in conservative investments. In fact, a great deal of wealth is made from following low-risk ideas in highly speculative arenas such as options and futures. But you must understand what makes up a low-risk idea. It s not what you think. 3. Understand why position sizing is so critical to your bottom line results! Few people understand this critical concept. Yet it means the difference between consistent top performance and average mediocre performance for most people. We ll teach you position-sizing based trading, so you will have the same risk and exposure in the market day after day. Think how calm you could be knowing that your risk is always the same. The discussions about money management were unexpected and worth the price of admission by themselves. M.S., CA 4. Learn 15 ways to develop rock-solid discipline in your trading. Discipline really means controlling your mental state. Unfortunately, most people allow their mental state to control them. In contrast, real winners maintain discipline that allows them to charge ahead of others in the field. If you play in a 2. Do you get so anxious about the market that you have trouble pulling the trigger? 3. Do you get so excited about the market you get distracted and fail to follow your system? 4. Are you a perfectionist? Does that perfectionism get in your way as a trader? Are you always trying to improve your trading system? Do you find that the current trade never quite fits all of the criteria you want, so you have trouble taking it? 5. Is your life and your trading ruled by emotions such as fear, anger, greed, or anything else? 6. Are you constantly losing money because you don t have a plan to guide your trading? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Peak Performance 101 can help you immensely. If you re really committed to trading success and willing to do whatever it takes, you ll find that you become a different person after this ground-breaking course. zero-sum trading game, like futures, you need to know every trick. These are the real secrets that separate successful traders and investors from the average person. 5. Learn Dr. Tharp s model for successful trading and investing. Here is a partial list of the tasks in the model that we will help you master: developing low-risk ideas, stalking, mental rehearsal, self-analysis, action, aborting, and, best of all, taking profits. At Peak Performance 101, Dr. Tharp will help you install his model so you can trade like other successful traders. You ll have tools at your disposal that the average investor or trader never even thought about. 6. Learn how to act quickly with sureness and confidence. One trait all the best traders and investors have in common is extreme confidence in what they re doing. Confidence is the one quality you must develop to attain your peak level of performance. At Peak Performance 101, you ll learn how to develop the kind of confidence only the best traders and investors have. 7. Learn how to develop a plan for trading that will set you way above the crowd. You see, there are certain disciplines certain techniques used within a specific structure that give the professional trader and investor the edge over amateur investors. Dr. Tharp understands these disciplines, and he is an expert at coaching others to use them. After spending three days with Van, I came away with one belief that saved my career: Only low-risk trades will keep you in the game! H.W., NY 9

10 There s More! Networking. This is networking in a non-competitive, safe, supportive atmosphere that produces the special qualities necessary to transform your trading. People who attend Peak Performance 101 develop life-long friendships. It felt good to meet fellow traders...to be around people whom I could admire. Independent thinkers are at a premium. To have so many in one room was a very pleasant experience. E.M., MI Improving the quality of your life. When Dr. Tharp selects traders to model, he selects traders who have high-quality lifestyles. As a result, when you attend Peak Performance 101 and install Dr. Tharp s model, you will not only improve your trading dramatically, but you will also improve the quality of your entire life. Being with everyone showed me that I was like everyone else in the room with a lot of stored emotions wanting to get attention. After the course, I had a clear purpose and direction, as if I had seen and understood what the assembled puzzle should look like. G.G., France [It] really elevated my trading onto a higher plane. I was already a very good trader, but now I m even better, which is very exciting. My whole life is better because I m a better husband and a better father as a result of the experience. K.T., England Traders Incredible Results You said at the beginning of the course that some people would be profoundly affected by the material in both their trading and their lives. I was one of those people. W.B., MA Self-sabotage has always been my major personal issue. Having the skills to cope I know will make all the difference. A global experience. Throughout the course I appreciated the emphasis on the whole person not just the trader personality. J.M., KS The course was one of the major events of my life. Among other things, it ended a 23-year emotional nightmare relationship I had with the market. Prior to the course, my reaction time upon receipt of a buy signal was half-an-hour to never. I would think of all possible things that could go wrong and find reasons not to follow my system. Tuesday, following the course, my reaction time to a buy signal was seven seconds. D.N., NY In essence, I made over 80% return on 6% of my capital in less than one month and that s just on closed trades. My trading system hasn t changed one iota; I have changed. R.G., CA After attending your course, I suspended trading until June 24th to regroup. I have just completed my first four weeks of trading with a starting capital of $66,782. I have $7,711 in closed out profits with open trade equity of $5,448 as of yesterday s close. Now I am trading very relaxed and feeling very peaceful about my business with a sense of calm and control. S.G., CO For a new not-yet-trader, carefully studying Dr. Tharp s work, I could not even begin to think of what life would be like without taking the first step here. S.L., DC Questions and Answers Q: How is the workshop different from the home study program? A: Most people have trouble doing self-awareness exercises on their own. As a result, this course is designed to help you through those exercises. We consider it a mid-point between the home study program and private consulting. In fact, many traders take this workshop over and over again because you can never learn enough about yourself....had expected the workshop to be a walk-thru of the home study course. Very pleasantly surprised to find it quite different. Ian Thomson Q: Do I need to work through the home study program before I take the workshop? A: We are on this one. You certainly will get more out of the workshop if you do the home study course first. However, many people do the workshop first and find that it greatly helps them with the home study course. Q: I am already a profitable trader, why should I consider attending this workshop? A: A coach finds talented players, teaches them the fundamentals of the craft, and then makes sure that they follow the fundamentals. As a profitable trader, you know that any extra edge will make you that much more profitable. One of the most successful traders in the world pays over a million dollars each year for personal coaching because he wants every possible edge. If you are profitable, you probably should be thinking along the same lines. Q: I am new to trading. I understand that this workshop will help me develop myself as a trader but, as a beginner, wouldn t I be better off trying to learn more about trading techniques first? A: As a beginner you need this information first. Most people make the mistake of looking for trading techniques first. When you do that without doing any work on yourself, you end up making thousands of mistakes. We typically find that people who tend to take workshops that focus on techniques need to repeat them after they ve taken Peak Performance 101. Why? Because, after this workshop, they are more open and know more about what they really need to be successful. If this is the first trading workshop you ever take, it will be the best thing you can do for yourself. Q: The markets are uncertain these days. Why should I spend this much on a workshop when I could use that money as capital? A: Capital used when you are not functioning at your peak is often capital wasted. The best investment you can make is in yourself, and attendance at this workshop is an investment in you. We had comments from a number of people saying, If only I had done this before I did that investment or before I started investing at all. Do yourself a favor. Come to this workshop so you can make the most of the capital you have

11 The synergy of this experience can be a powerful impetus to individual growth, transforming trading obstacles into trading profits. Enjoy the opportunity to grow in association with other professional traders. Learn the techniques that can help you perceive the market in more creative ways, stalk it, and then take action, making more profits more consistently. Can I Really Make Money with These Principles Developed from Modeling Market Masters? Absolutely! First, you ll learn what all the best traders and investors have in common. You ll learn their real secrets. When you apply them to your own trading, it ll make a big difference in your bottom line. Secondly, you ll get to learn about the most important influence in your trading: you. Most people just act like robots throughout most of their lives. They are in automatic mode. They react to certain things automatically with fear. They react angrily to other things because they want to be right. They react with greed to other things because they want more control. Learn to go beyond what the average trader does! Be in control of yourself. When you do, your trading will improve immensely. In addition, the effect of eliminating self-sabotaging behaviors could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to you over your lifetime for some of you it could be worth millions. Think about the biggest mistake you made last year. How much did that cost you? What if you could just save that amount every year? How much would that be worth? In addition, add the compounding effect of more consistent performance and you can begin to understand the real value of this course. Our mission at The Van Tharp Institute is to help people transform themselves. The Peak Performance workshop are the key courses we do in the area of transformation. If you learn how you control your own results in trading, then we ve accomplished something that will help you immensely. But if you make a major change that affects the rest of your life that s when we really know that we ve accomplished something important. We d like to help everyone in attendance make such a major transformation. This workshop is a prerequisite for the Peak Performance 202 and 203 workshops. I strongly encourage you to take that next step for total transformation. Sincerely, Questions and Answers continued... Q: I want to become the best trader I can be. Does this course show me how to trade? A: This course is unlike most courses available to traders and investors. It does not teach trading techniques. It teaches you techniques on how to develop yourself as a trader. The concept is similar to the old saying, Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; show a man how to fish and he eats for a lifetime. There are possibly more trading techniques available than can be counted. One technique may earn one trader a fortune but cause another to go bankrupt. The difference in the results lies within the trader: how a person processes information, or inner conflicts that can cause confusion, or the lack of discipline to follow a trading plan. Showing traders and investors how to develop skills and awareness on the issues from within are at the core of this highly effective course. Q: What are your objectives for teaching the workshop? A: Here are just a few objectives: To teach you how great traders approach their craft and give you a daily procedure that resembles what they do. To teach you how to create your own experience in the market and how you are responsible for the results that you get. To make you aware of some of your own psychological issues that affect your performance as a trader/investor. To teach you about expectancy and position sizing and the power of big R-multiples through the simulation game that we play in the class. In addition, that game is designed to help you observe your emotions in a setting in which only a small amount is at stake compared with what you will face in the market. To teach you some of the variables that affect your emotions and how you can gain control over them. To help you overcome self-sabotage through exercises done in the class. RJ Hixson To help you develop an ongoing program to work on yourself. To help you develop a plan to make the maximum use of this workshop. To allow you to meet and network with some really great people who have a lot in common with you. 11

12 Systems Development Workshop How to Develop a Winning Trading System That Fits You Presented by Van K. Tharp and RJ Hixson There are three critical secrets that you can adopt to develop a superb wealth-building formula. If you concentrate on these 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. I ve proven this formula in helping develop top traders and investors. Now, I want to offer you the same incredible opportunity to make big money, and I ll take all the initial risk. Van Tharp Dear Colleague, Through my years of modeling top market performers, I ve isolated a few key factors in trading success. One of these is that top performers have developed trading systems that fit their own trading personalities. This is what I recommend for each of you. While this may seem like a large task, I encourage you to be open to this idea. THE BEST SYSTEMS I VE SEEN ARE SIMPLE SYSTEMS. So, this endeavor is not about complicated measures. However, people all too often make it complicated. But this is where my workshop How to Develop a Winning Trading System That Fits You can be of great value. It gives you all the key areas to focus on, and helps guide you away from the common mistakes that people make and towards meaningful steps to develop a system that not only fits you and your trading style, but also one that you really understand and that you can adapt when market conditions change. What worked for the bull won t work for the bear. Systems that can t be adapted to changing conditions are adept to leave the trader with an empty account, wondering what went wrong. In this three-day workshop, you will learn the critical elements of position sizing and how to implement this essential component into your systems. As a matter of fact, you will learn ten key components to a system. Do You Want Bigger and More Consistent Profits from the Market? If you want consistency and you want to make profitable returns from your trading, then you will want to consider attending this workshop. You ll learn 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 create a system that will allow you to develop a unique methodology that will give you that kind of consistency. Are you a gutsy trader willing to take risks? We can show you a method that you can do in such a way that the only money you are 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. 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. Creating your own trading system not only helps to develop the critical element of confidence, but also allows for customizing the system to suit your personal preferences. For best results, each system has to be designed to fit the temperament and preferences of the trader who must implement it. The trader who designs his or her own trading methods will have an intimate familiarity with the tempo of the trading, as well as with the nature of the risks inherent in the procedures that must be followed. Excerpt from Technical Traders Guide to Computer Analysis of the Futures Market, by Charles LeBeau and David Lucas

13 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 buy software now 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 proper position sizing 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. Our job in this workshop is to teach you what you need to know to develop your own system. The material you will learn is not market or time-frame specific. So whether you trade stocks, futures, currencies or gold, or whether you place 50 trades per day or 50 trades per year, you will learn all of the components that work in any system. Three critical secrets you can adopt to develop a superb wealth-building formula. 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. To develop a system that fits you, you need to really think about what you want. It s not a trivial task. There are at least 30 questions you need to address when developing a system. You will receive a number of questions to answer concerning your objectives prior to the workshop. These questions will help you decide what you want and how you want to get there. 2. A good trading system has ten key components. Most people ignore six or seven of them when they do their research. In fact, you ll never see a book on systems development that covers more than six components. 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. Questions and Answers Q: I trade the stock market exclusively. Will this workshop cover stock trading? A: It s designed around systems not markets. We estimate that at least half of the attendees are stock market traders. However, our goal is to help you design a system that fits you, no matter what market you trade. Q: I am a short-term day trader. My friend recommended this workshop to me, but he would be classified as a long-term investor. How can one workshop meet the needs of our very different trading styles? A: We discuss the parts of a system in detail and most of those parts remain the same no matter what your style of trading may be. We then group you with other like-minded traders to work on system design. Thus, if you are a day trader, you ll be with other short-term traders. If you are a long-term trader, you ll be with other long-term traders. Over the years, we ve found that this method works very well and everyone gets what they are looking for. Q: I don t know much about systems and research. Will I be lost? A: Although the information we present is very advanced, we will present it in such a way that anyone can understand it. Reading Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom will also be extremely beneficial. Chuck LeBeau s book, Computer Analysis of the Futures Market, is excellent, as well as Van Tharp s Definitive Guide to Position Sizing. Q: Can I talk to prior attendees before I make my final decision? A: Yes. They ll tell you our workshops are of the highest quality and packed with information that has transformed their lives and increased their profits. Here s what past attendees have said: Words fail me perhaps second-to-none A must for any novice and master trader alike! B.M., S. Africa It was an outstanding event and most educational. My goal is to become a worldclass trader and I know with your guidance that reality is inevitable. V.B., TX I believe it easily has the best (most valuable) content of any course I have done. Peter Deck, Australia 13

14 You should be able to take advantage of eight of these components easily after the workshop. And, with a little more effort, you ll be able to use all ten. If you use all ten with competence, you ll be among the top one tenth of one percent 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. 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 a 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 huge returns each year, risking only the money that the market has given you. Learn how one trader turned $10,000 into $1.1 million in less than a year. In addition, we ll show you how a group of traders have taken over $100 million out of the market over a 10-year period. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of both styles. 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 from experts in the industry. This helped me to understand the proper steps to take in my system development I thought it was a good balance between the technical and the theory. A.C., FL 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. 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. Superb. Every section of the course was stuffed with information. I couldn t take notes fast enough (so I opted to just listen). Lots of creative ideas worthy of further research. R.W., CO 4. 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. 5. 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! Very useful to see first hand the real risks of ruin, over-trading, etc. The course was very helpful to me in laying out the specific tasks I must complete. B.C., Ontario, Canada 6. Depending upon your objectives, which you ll be asked to submit prior to the workshop, you ll be assigned to a group to successfully develop a trading system for the type of trading you want to do. Overall I found the course to be on the cutting edge of trading psychology and system development. L.M., LA Sincerely, Van K. Tharp P.S. Free on-line seminar! Van Tharp, Chuck LeBeau, and D.R. Barton cover system development topics, such as how much capital is enough, and exit strategies. Plus, learn where to find an archive of over 50 articles on system development. Visit and click on our How to Develop a Wining Trading System Workshop to download this free mp3 teleconference. The course exceeded all my expectations...have already seen the positive effects and the home preparation work in my trading system performance as well as its wider application to my personal life. The caliber of the people who attended was extremely high. This may be the most important part of the course itself. I absolutely recommend this course to anyone interested in further developing the effectiveness of their personal trading systems. K.L., KS

15 Systems That Outperform the Global Markets Long Term (with just a few minutes every weekend) Dear Traders and Investors, Presented by Ken Long Learn to Spot the Flow of Big Money Quickly! Earn Extra $1,000s Each Day in Your Free Time! Most people tend do the exact opposite of what big funds do and they pay a price for trading this way. For example, some people will buy a stock after hearing that a fund manager really likes it. However, by the time the retail investors buy it, the fund manager is about ready to sell. But what if you could detect what the big mutual funds are doing with their money well before they complete their big transactions and jump in ahead of them? If mutual fund managers are buying retail stocks, you d be able to get into those stocks as they are getting in and profit greatly as their significant purchasing activity drives prices up Wouldn t that be a huge advantage over other investors? We re going to show you exactly how to do that. How? First, by understanding how and where big money flows. Very helpful information that gave me a good foundation for putting ETFs into perspective compared to stocks and mutual funds. M.L. Suppose you manage a fund, and you need to move a billion dollars out of retail stocks and into utility stocks. For billion dollar orders, you don t just click a mouse button. Instead, you work with a large brokerage firm and instruct them with an order that basically says, You have three days to get rid of this stock. We want at least $998 million for it. If you can get more than that, keep the extra cash as commission. The market then sees a slow movement out of retail stocks. And as that one fund moves out of retail, others may see that action, which then might confirm their beliefs about retail sector weakness, causing them to move out as well. Subsequent flows make the underlying movement even stronger. The same fund manager may give instructions to use the proceeds of the retail stocks sale to then buy a billion dollar basket of utility stocks over the next five days. As retail stocks were moving down, you might also see utility stocks moving up. While the major averages may not move that much, big money moves its funds around and shifts the internals of the markets. Now expand your focus beyond domestic equities. Say the Latin American markets are zooming up, oil is building a base or the dollar is in a nice steady trend. There are now clear cut ways for the individual trader to see this happening and to take advantage of it. You can learn to detect when and where the big money moves. In fact, spotting it quickly can be an important (and highly profitable!) edge for you. Big money tends to move slowly, but you can move quickly. In fact, when you get good at observing the flows of funds, you can start making thousands of dollars each day at your convenience. It s not that hard. Ken Long, a retired US Army LTC, does it regularly. And Ken will show you just how he does it in this revamped, exciting workshop that teaches you how to jump in front of the big money. Introducing Ken Long, Your Instructor When Ken Long first attended my Systems Development workshop in the mid 1990s and submitted his objectives to me, I thought to myself, Someone from the Army is going to apply this material? Little did I know that Ken Long would not only apply it but he d become a master of it and one of the best traders I know. Ken is one of the few people I have met who has a graduate degree in systems design. Because of his training, Ken spots ideas that most people would never think of. For example, when Ken attended our systems workshop and learned about the complex training game we were playing, he developed a procedure for strategizing about the game that I now teach in that workshop. He s that good! 15

16 Extremely comprehensive top down approach to trading. Superbly presented by Ken Long in a very understandable format. I give this course a 10 out of 10. Good job! Ken is clearly a man of great integrity and because of this, he had my trust in the material he was presenting immediately. T.R. Ken s business plan is one that I use as a template for teaching business planning to traders. Again, his work is exemplary. It s been exhilarating! I found Ken to be extremely clear and structured in his explanation and presentation of his systems, beliefs and techniques. Awesome information for traders of any level of expertise. J.L.S. Ken is one of our best instructors in part because he treats his trading and teaching as he treats his martial arts, his coaching, and life in general: he pursues excellence to the point of mastery. He s even working on a management PhD now and has been able to integrate his research into his teaching position at the US Army Staff College and into his trading. Ken is a thinker, philosopher, a tinkerer, and a leader. He applies what he learns faster and gets more done every day than anyone else I know. He started with mutual funds in the 1990s but has grown over the last ten years into an outstanding big picture thinker, and long term and tactical trader. He has also evolved his strategies over the years and teaches his latest advancements in this workshop. What Ken does today is not that hard. He says that if he learned how to do it, anyone can! What Can You Expect To Learn? Ken s New Course Model Here s one example of how Ken has taken my material and applied it (in this case) to help you trade better. In our Blueprint Workshop, we have a few areas of key focus for becoming a great trader: knowing yourself, understanding markets, and using systems. Ken used this Blueprint model to rebuild his previous ETF 101 material into this new workshop. These are the areas he has built the new course around: Self Understand how to use your learning style profile to improve your trading. Leverage your trading strengths and minimize your trading challenges. Define realistic expectations and learning strategies to help you grow as a trader. Learn how to find a Mastermind group and how to benefit from their power. Build a business-like operations plan as a commitment to your trading results. Develop discipline and consistency through the use of checklists, rehearsals, and debriefings. Systems Design an annual passive asset allocation strategy for a hands-off approach using part of your equity. Adapt the Elder Triple Screen for a highly reliable system. Learn how to place macro-economic trades in a systematic manner. Understand an effective weekly trend following strategy that rises faster than the market but gets safely in cash during periods of market risk or declines. Take advantage of opportunistic trades with a reliable, mechanical systems approach. Frequently Asked Questions and Answers Q: Can you really make lots of money with these principles? A: Absolutely! Just think of the advantage of being able to jump in front of large funds because you ll have learned the skills to anticipate what they are doing. You ll also have the advantage of being able to spot which markets around the globe are doing well and participate in their rallies. Q: I am already a profitable trader, why should I consider attending this workshop? A: For the same reasons that prompt a number of professional managers to revisit this course annually. Ken is always developing new market insights, coming up with new trading systems, and constantly evolving his current systems. He conceives profitable new trading ideas frequently and he shares those freely with his classes. Ken constantly challenges his students to develop their own new ways of thinking about the market and about trading. How many ideas worth thousands of dollars each would it take for attendance to make sense for you? Wouldn t just a few of those be worth your time? Q: I am fairly new to trading. Will this workshop help me? A: Absolutely. You don t have to have tons of experience to learn how to spot what big money is doing. Furthermore, Ken teaches profitable methods that newer traders can use immediately. It wasn t that many years back that Ken was a new trader himself, and he takes pleasure in helping new traders get going. Q: I don t have a lot of time to trade. How much time does it take to trade these systems? A: Ken developed these intermediate and longer term systems initially because he didn t have a lot of time either. One of Ken s systems only requires adjustments to its positions annually. That would take less than an hour a year. Ken presents systems that can be operated largely outside of market hours in as little as a few minutes per week. Of course with more time and effort you may reap more results, but you can trade profitably without spending your days in front of a trading screen. Ken has been doing it for years

17 Markets Learn a market classification model for all market types so you know when to trade and when to be out of the market. Understand a world market model to evaluate the relative performance of different markets because some market somewhere is always doing well. Appreciate longer term technical indicators for their help in identifying market trends outside of the noise. Learn to spot and profit from currency imbalances without the risks and learning curve of becoming a currency trader. Discover the broad choices available in ETF types and how to use them profitably in trading systems. Here s What s Waiting For You! Day 1: Building Your Toolbox You ll focus on gathering the information and identifying the tools you need to design and operate your ETF trading strategy. You ll learn about ETFs, how they are constructed, and how they trade, and why they are so useful to traders. You ll look at large cap stocks and find out how their similar behavior to ETFs offers you trading opportunities. You ll also cover the parts of a trading system and how your beliefs and objectives form the basis of effective system design. You ll identify ETF price actions that indicate where the big money is flowing. This is a core part of most of Ken s strategies. You ll also learn essential skills to enhance your trading with concepts like position sizing and portfolio heat. And lastly, you ll study useful indicators that measure strength of trend and volatility and learn to identify common reversal signals. And all of that is just on Day 1! Day 2: Strategies and Tools On Day 2, Ken reviews a number of trading systems over various time frames. Learn in detail how an ETF system can be traded in a stand-alone mode or be traded as part of a broader portfolio. You ll examine the specific rules for entry and how to base your decisions off of simple yet robust indicators. Ken goes in depth on the critical yet often overlooked topics of position sizing and exit management. Learn the power of position sizing as a risk management tool and how your profits come from your exits. Ken uses case studies to teach the fine points of each strategy. You get to develop your personal ETF strategy using the tools and techniques that fit your objectives and beliefs by working in a small group of like-minded traders. Day 3: Putting Your Tools in to Practice On Day 3, we put it all together and practice applying the trading strategies. You ll learn to pick the right strategy and apply it effectively in real world situations through the use of case studies and group work. You ll learn how to develop your trading and support systems to make your trading decisions much more efficient and save you a lot of time. In addition, you ll receive group insights on the specifics of your personal ETF strategy. What Else? Very impressed. Ken over delivered on the course objectives and with a lot of his own real-world experiences, all with a good delivery and sense of humor. I leave feeling I can grow my account better than a market benchmark using a disciplined approach without a lot of weekly time and make a little extra using multiple strategies on ETFs. D.H. In addition to the money making benefits listed above, there s another valuable element to this course. You ll be meeting and networking with like-minded traders and investors from around the world! After the workshop, Ken also provides the means for you to keep up with his ongoing systems development process. Ken has developed some of the best trading systems for which I have personally seen trade results. He has developed himself into an outstanding trader and teacher feedback forms from his workshops continuously have the highest marks. Attend this workshop and study with a true master. Sincerely, Van K. Tharp Your Trading Coach 17

18 Swing and Day Trading Systems for Equities and ETFs Presented by Ken Long Learn to Trade These Highly Profitable Short Term Systems for Frequent and Profitable Trades! Dear Traders, Ken Long evolved from one of my best students in the 1990s to an outstanding long-term trading system instructor to one of the best intraday and swing traders that I know today. Now, he consistently makes single and double digit R-Multiple trades on a daily basis. The systems he teaches continue to have some of the highest SQNs that I have seen. Every time I sit through one of his workshops, I learn several new ideas. With the input of many students, he reengineered his ETF 202 workshop last year and developed this new three day format and teaches his best short-term systems. He also demonstrates trading these systems live during the workshop. With so many systems, signals, and styles to choose from, the choices can be bewildering for traders. How can you systematically make the choices to improve your chances in this difficult profession? You have to start with a deep understanding of your own psychology (Self Knowledge), the market (Market Knowledge) and finally your systems (System Knowledge). Finding the sweet spot where your skills intersect with your systems and with the market is no small challenge. How do you consistently find and exploit your zone? How do you keep your edge? What if you followed a process? What if you had a comprehensive framework that adapted with a changing market and gave you a way to evaluate opportunities in a disciplined, consistent and efficient manner? What if that framework highlighted the dominant trends world-wide, in plenty of time for you to take advantage of the move with clear decision points for entries and exits? Within that framework, what if you had several advanced shorter term strategies that allowed you to capture the big money flows? Those are the basic elements of a process that would help you make consistent profits. Would you like learn such a process? In his re-engineered workshop, Swing and Band Trading for Equities and ETFs, Ken Long presents this framework and these strategies. He starts at a very high level thinking about and looking at what the market is doing. He then goes down a level to focus in on which strategies would profit most in the current market conditions. Finally, he gets to ground level with a strong daily trading plan that defines entry points, position sizing, and exits. He presents this masterful approach so you can understand what the market is doing at a very high level, as well as exactly how you are going to trade when the opening bell rings. Learn 5 Strategies in 3 Days Strategy 1: A Weekly Momentum-Based Sector ETF Model. An intermediate, momentum based ETF strategy that gives insight into the current state of the dynamic world market model. It is a comprehensive stand-alone asset allocation system well-suited for end of day traders or weekend traders. We ll be looking closely at distinct sub-sectors of the world market to find commodities, currencies, industry sectors, geographic regions and other profitable opportunity areas within the ETF world market model framework. Strategy 2: Washout. Ken likes to say The market will never react when it can overreact. Consequently, it overreacts all the time. This system watches out for a combination of overreaction measured both on a short term and long term basis. The trade usually takes a couple of days and is followed in many cases by a follow-on or continuation trade. However, there are important safety measures in place to ensure you aren t trying to catch a falling knife. Strategy 3: 5 Days Down. When a stock has fallen for five or more straight days, it will tend to bounce up before it reverses or starts back down. Ken developed and tested this system after a slight mention in an article he read. It worked and worked well. Oftentimes there is a secondary and more reliable continuation trade as with the washout system. Strategy 4: 551w. One of Ken s long time students (and a large fund manager) conceived this idea and discussed it with Ken at one of his workshops. Ken understood it immediately and liked it so much he started trading it the next day. It combines three consecutive set ups from his other systems that build off of each other for a highly reliable trade. It s simple to use and as with Ken s systems, it can be applied mechanically or with trader discretion for some added benefit. Strategy 5: Mechanical Systems Turbo-Charge. This is actually a systematic approach to trading rather than a stand-alone system so you can almost double the number of systems you trade. There are ways to turbo-charge mechanical systems for intraday or

19 swing trades. It s possible to trade these on a more discretionary basis because they are completely aligned with positions that your mechanical systems are telling you to take anyway. What Can I Expect to Learn? There are eight money making benefits awaiting you. They ll help you make more consistent profits, keep your losses smaller, and be more relaxed about your trading. 1. Understand the World Market Model: Get into the details of the construction and application of the framework that provides the common point of evolution for all Tortoise strategies. This broad market structure enables all of the other approaches that Ken uses and teaches. 2. Link Decision Points to Price Signals: Every trade is a hypothesis; it is an experiment to determine the validity of an idea in the market. We ll look at how to express our ideas with precision so that we can act with certainty. Learn how to remove the emotion from your decision making process in the heat of the moment. 3. Classify the Market: Everyone has an opinion about what kind of market we are in. If that opinion isn t related to your preferred time frame for trading, then, not only is it worthless, but it can be downright harmful. Learn how to assess the market in a way that gives you meaningful, actionable information, and screen out the trivia and noise. 4. Build a System of Systems: Regardless of market conditions, have one or more systems ready to take advantage of whatever comes your way. Incorporate multiple time frames with appropriate systems consistent with your beliefs and style for consistent profits every week. 5. Apply Leveraged and Inverse ETFs: There are now numerous ETFs you can trade that are either leveraged or inverse. They have specific purposes, different behaviors, and fill unique situations you don t just throw them in with the rest of the ETFs. When appropriate, they can be the perfect vehicle for short term trades. Longer term, however, they don t perform for some important reasons that Ken will cover. 6. Excel at Preparation: Preparing a daily trading plan is a highly profitable way to spend a part of your day! It allows you to set up a game plan for likely scenarios, consider alternative outcomes, and select from the richest opportunities all without the stress of the moving prices on the trading screen. Ken follows this discipline everyday and requires it of his Mastermind chat room participants. And it makes such a huge difference in their results! You will prepare one of these daily trading plans as part of your evening homework. 7. Grow with a Mastermind: Ken started a Mastermind group of traders last year and has been absolutely amazed at the acceleration in learning it has provided. Not only can it make a dramatic improvement in your trading, you get to enjoy the company of other traders. He strongly encourages people to find a group to join, learn from and share with to grow as a trader. 8. Frame Every Trade: When you enter a trade, do you know exactly how much you have at risk, how much you expect to gain, and the likelihood of the outcome? After you learn how to do this and follow the discipline of its lessons, you may find it hard to trade in any other way ever again. And as always, you ll be networking and meeting like-minded traders and investors! Here s How Ken Structures the Three Days Day 1: Introductions, Seminar Goals, Market Classifications, Framing Trades You begin the workshop with a personal introduction by each trader in the room. While some have viewed this as a feel good exercise, most people have come to appreciate the role of other traders as a long term critical success factor for trading. You will trade together with these people in Ken s chatroom over the next year (if you choose). In short, these traders can help you meet your goals. There will be traders in attendance at the workshop who are experienced in the Tortoise strategies. They help teach the workshop by discussing how they apply the techniques on a personal basis. Sharing their insights, goals, disciplines and methods will help you develop your own application plan to take home. Ken also wants to get a sense of what each individual wants to accomplish at the workshop. He actually writes everyone s objectives down and concludes the workshop on Day 3 with a review of this initial list. If you know Ken, it probably doesn t surprise you that he gets them all accomplished. You ll explore market classification strategies, choosing your best set of market signals, and the value of building a daily trading plan based on the first day s learning and observations. 19

20 Ken dives deep into the critical concept of framing your trades. This concept is no more important in short-term trading than in longterm trading; it s just that you experience the effects a lot quicker. You will complete several exercises in which to apply the concept. Day 2: Refining and Maintaining Your Trading Plan With Systems Day 2 is mostly about trading systems. You start the day by crafting a daily trading plan, pulling together various signals and strategies so you can perform the same exercise on your own that evening. Ken helps you understand not just the details, but also how to think about trading systems. At a higher level, you want to analyze system performance to know if your systems are adding value. You want to examine different aspects of your performance to see where you can fine tune the system. You also want to make sure that your systems are capitalizing on market opportunities within your time frame. Perhaps the hardest thing in the world to do is to look past a positive system performance for the unseen opportunity. You be so satisfied with the performance of a positive expectancy system that you miss an even larger opportunity staring you in the face. Ken then goes into great depth for each system. He helps you understand its basic logic, how to find the setups, good entry techniques, appropriate initial stops, profit taking exits, and re-entry or continuation trades if there are any. Ken provides a thorough trading system document for each system and also shares with you his actual trading results for each system. You will not leave the workshop wanting for more information! You are more likely going to leave with a desire to go home and trade! You conclude Day 2 by looking at the turbocharging technique. It s a way to take a mechanical system and trade it in a shorter timeframe with turbocharged results. The role of discretion in your trading is also a topic at the end of Day 2. It is one thing to be a disciplined mechanical trader; it is another to have a deep understanding of your mechanical framework and to see opportunities in the market to frame excellent trades as price unfolds. Finally, Ken sends you home to write your daily trading plan for the next day. Day 3: Applying What You ve Learned The morning starts with a review of the daily trading plan process and everyone s experience in putting together one on their own. This is your chance to receive detailed and personalized feedback from your growing network of Tortoise traders with a group review. This will be a unique opportunity to see your ideas from many points of view and to refine your plan. The rest of the day will be a mix of live trading, individual work, and group exercises. Ken reviews his own daily trading plan and takes some trades based off of it. Hearing him talk through his framing process, trade entry, position sizing, initial stop, and exits is an incredibly valuable experience. He ll take as many trades as is possible and practical, and talk everyone through his process. You will also break into groups to work some practical exercises to ensure that you have a good baseline understanding of the systems as designed. Group work tends to accelerate the learning process and fosters new idea generation. You ll conclude the day with Ken s demonstration of the Tortoise Campfire Chat Room and Basecamp chatroom. These are the places where the growing network of Tortoise-style traders meets to exchange ideas and share insights every day. Traders of all skill levels and backgrounds are benefitting from the dialogues there. What Students Had to Say about Ken s Short Term Workshop (previously ETF 202) Sincerely, Fantastic course!!! It was great to get deeper into Ken s thought processes, especially how he reads the tortoise reports to set up his overall weekly and daily trading strategies. Ken s trading dashboard is rich with information and is extremely powerful when you know how to take advantage of all it has to offer. Ed Pomicter Very good with valuable advanced tools that are actionable. Ken s instructional techniques are terrific and his research is totally first rate. Rick Freeman Excellent drill down insights into how Ken uses his indicators. The essence of brilliance is making the complex simple. This course makes a huge step in this direction. Jim Slatten It was useful to have Ken go through his daily plan and his explanation of his charts. Jay Street Van K. Tharp Your Trading and Investing Coach