Van K. Tharp, Henry 0. Pruden. The Ten Tasks of Top Trading.pdf

The Ten Tasks of Top Trading
by Van K. Tharp, . and Henry 0. Pruden, .
Our purpose at Investment Psychology Consulting is The Ten Tasks
to model or duplicate essful trading. Modeling is The ten stages in the model are illustrated in
a science that developed within the last decade. An Figure 1. These ten tasks fit the metaphor of a
expert modeler can determine how people perform a hunter, a predator, or a warrior. For example, in his
task well and teach that skill to others. We have been book, The Art of War, Sun Tzu points out that bat-
developing such a model for trading ess. tles are won before they start? Think about the
We are in the process of modeling every type of implications of that statement. In the case of trading,
trading (day trading, floor trading, position trading, it means that your mental state and preparation
fund management). We already have most of the virtually determine whether you will win or lose in
essential elements of all of these types of trading. We a given trade before you even open the position.
are simply refining our models and developing train- Perhaps that statement is a little strong, but I
ing programs to teach top-level trading performance believe that your mental state and preparation deter-
to others. mine whether you will win on the average The state-
The first and most important aspect of modelin