Van K.Tharp – Business Planning for Traders

Van K.Tharp – Business Planning for Traders is an audio course that helps you treat trading like a real business, not a hobby.

You will build a practical trading business plan that covers goals, discipline, strategy, and the operating systems that support better decisions in uncertain markets.

The emphasis is education and structure. Trading involves risk and uncertainty, so the course focuses on planning, measurement, and execution rather than promises.

What is the Van K.Tharp – Business Planning for Traders course about?

This program teaches you how to design a viable business plan for trading and investing. It frames trading as an enterprise with objectives, processes, and feedback loops, so you can evaluate what you do and improve it over time.

The course is delivered as a comprehensive audio series. Along the way, Dr. Van K. Tharp interviews special guests and provides weekly exercises designed to assist you in preparing your plan as the series progresses.

Instead of relying on a single “secret strategy,” you learn how to organize your thinking: define your outcomes, clarify the kind of systems that fit you, and align your market approach with your personal objectives and constraints.

What will you learn?

• How to start a trading plan: the essential elements of a plan and the questions that help you confirm your trading system fits your objectives.
• How to understand today’s markets: a practical way to stay oriented to major trends and assess them quickly.
• How to build discipline into your plan: create a trading vision and purpose, then translate it into yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals.
• How to create your strategy: work with key factors such as stops, expectancy, R-multiples, and position sizing when shaping a strategy.
• How to make your plan work: run trading like a business using a structured outline and supporting systems beyond “just a strategy.”
• How to edge-proof your plan: include psychology, commitment, discipline, and worst-case contingency planning.
• How systems perform under different conditions: use backtesting and system analysis to understand drawdowns, losing streaks, and other performance realities.
• How to improve your plan: learn from reviews and comparisons, so your plan becomes clearer and more realistic.

Who is it for?

Van K.Tharp – Business Planning for Traders is for traders and investors who want to trade with more professionalism and less improvisation.

• Active traders who want a documented plan with goals, routines, and rules they can actually follow.
• Long-term investors who want a business-like framework for decisions, risk limits, and performance review.
• Self-taught traders who have ideas but lack structure, measurement, and consistent discipline.
• Serious learners who prefer practical exercises that turn concepts into a working document.

How does it work?

The training is delivered as an audio series you can go through at your own pace. Each part focuses on a specific area of business planning, and the exercises help you translate the ideas into your personal trading plan.

Because it is a plan-building course, you will get the most value by doing the work in writing: define your objectives, document your rules, and set up a review process. The program also discusses system analysis topics, so access to basic backtesting and reporting tools can be useful when you reach the sections on performance under different market conditions.

By the end, your goal is not to “know more.” Your goal is to have a plan you can run: a document that guides what you trade, how you size positions, how you track results, and how you respond when reality differs from expectations.

Benefits

• More clarity: stop guessing and start making decisions inside a defined business framework.
• Stronger discipline: goals, routines, and journaling practices reinforce consistency.
• Better risk alignment: strategy design connects to risk definitions, stops, and position sizing rules.
• More realistic expectations: system analysis helps you understand drawdowns and losing streaks before you experience them.
• Improvement over time: a plan with review loops makes it easier to refine what you do without emotional overreaction.

This course is educational and does not provide financial advice.

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of trading and investing concepts is recommended. To apply the course effectively, you should be willing to treat trading as a business and complete the exercises.

• Commitment: willingness to plan, journal, and review decisions consistently.
• Tools: a device to access audio materials and a way to document your plan (notes, spreadsheets, or a planning document).
• Analysis readiness: capacity to do basic backtesting and review performance metrics when you reach the system-analysis section.

About the author or About the academic institution

Dr. Van K. Tharp, PhD, founded the Van Tharp Institute and is known for his work on trading psychology, risk, and system development. He is featured as a trading coach in Jack Schwager’s Market Wizards interviews, and he has written eleven books on trading success and performance.

The Van Tharp Institute’s course library focuses on practical trading skills such as psychology, risk management, position sizing, and system thinking. Van K.Tharp – Business Planning for Traders fits into that ecosystem as a plan-first program designed to turn trading into a measurable, repeatable business process.

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Course curriculum

The audio series is organized into eight parts, supported by reference materials and structured exercises:

• Part 1: How to Start a Trading Plan — essential plan elements, commitment, outcomes-based organization, and fit between your system and objectives.
• Part 2: Understand Today’s Markets — major trends, quick assessment, and practical ways to stay on top of market context.
• Part 3: Build Discipline into Your Plan — vision, purpose, goal-setting cadence, top tasks, journaling, and lifestyle supports.
• Part 4: Create Your Strategy — stops, R-multiples, expectancy, and position sizing concepts used to shape a strategy.
• Part 5: How to Make Your Plan Work — a business-style operating outline, supporting systems, and your personal Financial Freedom Number as a planning input.
• Part 6: Give Yourself an Edge — psychology, commitment, discipline, and worst-case contingency planning.
• Part 7: How Systems Work and Perform Under Various Conditions — backtesting, system analysis, drawdowns and losing streaks, and performance reporting that improves decision quality.
• Part 8: Get a Review and Critique of Your Plan — refine your plan by learning from review and comparison.

Access the course now and start building a trading business plan you can execute, measure, and improve.

Downloadable Course Content