Dr. Van K. Tharp

10 Powerful Dr. Van K. Tharp Quotes For Traders

Nick Schmidt
Nick Schmidt

Nick Schmidt is a co-founder of TraderLion and Deepvue with over 10 years of market experience. Adopting a “less is more” philosophy, he focuses on weekly charts with an emphasis on price and volume.

December 21, 2020
4 min read
1130 views

Dr. Van K. Tharp Quotes

Dr. Van K. Tharp is a popular trading psychologist. Since 1982 he has been helping traders overcome self-limiting beliefs, create trading systems, and become the best version of themselves. 

Dr. Van K. Tharp received his Ph. D. in psychology from the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center in 1975. He is a certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a Certified Master Time Line Therapist, a certified Modeler of NLP, and an Assistant Trainer of NLP. One of the specific areas that Dr. Van K. Tharp specializes in is a success-related issue called self-sabotage.

Dr. Tharp was the only trading coach that was featured in Jack Schwager’s best-selling book, The Market Wizard’s: Interviews with Great Traders.

Besides Jack Schwager’s book, he has been featured in Forbes, Barron’s Market Week, Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities, Investors Business Daily, Trader’s Journal, and much more.

10 Dr. Van K. Tharp Quotes For Traders

Most people approach trading to make a lot of money, and that is one of the primary reasons they lose.

Dr. Van K. Tharp
Dr. Van K. Tharp Quotes

The realization that you are responsible for the results you get is the key to successful investing. Winners know they are responsible for their results; losers think they are not.

Dr. Van K. Tharp
Dr. Van K. Tharp Trading Quotes 2

The composite profile of a losing trader would be someone who is highly stressed and has little protection from stress, has a negative outlook on life and expects the worst, has a lot of conflict in his/her personality, and blames others when things go wrong. Such a person would not have a set of rules to guide their behavior and would be more likely a crowd follower. In addition, losing traders tend to be disorganized and impatient.

Dr. Van K. Tharp

The psychological factor for investing has 5 areas. These include a well-rounded personal life, a positive attitude, the motivation to make money, lack of conflict [such as psychological hang-ups about success], and responsibility for results.

Dr. Van K. Tharp
Dr. Van K. Tharp Trading Quotes 3

The top traders that I’ve worked with began their careers with an extensive study of the markets. They developed and refined models of how to trade. They mentally rehearsed what they wanted to do extensively until they had the belief that they would win. At this point, they had both the confidence and the commitment necessary to produce success.

Dr. Van K. Tharp

A peak performance trader is totally committed to being the best and doing whatever it takes to be the best. He feels totally responsible for whatever happens and thus can learn from his mistakes. These people typically have a working business plan for trading because they treat trading as a business.

Dr. Van K. Tharp

You do not trade the markets. You can only trade your beliefs about the markets.

Dr. Van K. Tharp
Dr. Van K. Tharp Trading Quotes 4

When you understand what’s involved in winning, as do professional gamblers, you’ll tend to bet more during a winning streak and less during a losing streak. However, the average person does exactly the opposite: he or she bets more after a series of losses and less after a series of wins.

Dr. Van K. Tharp

Many people actually want to lose on a subconscious level.

Dr. Van K. Tharp

A mistake is when you don’t follow your rules. If you don’t have rules in trading, everything you do is a mistake.

Dr. Van K. Tharp
Dr. Van K. Tharp Quotes

Bonus Quote

The best traders are always those who practice simplicity.

Dr. Van K. Tharp

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