Van Tharp – Forex Trading Systems, The Busted Breakout System

Busted Breakout

This e-learning course addresses two main parts from Gabriel’s original Forex Trading Workshop:

1) Forex trading basics — all you need to know to start trading Forex, and,

2) Gabriel’s popular and most easily accessable trading system, the Busted Breakout pattern.

Gabriel teaches three trading systems with an edge at his in-person Forex workshop at the Van Tharp Institute. Of those, the Busted Breakout offers the best performance statistics. Students that have taken the course already have said it’s also the easiest system to learn to trade! In this online course, Gabriel lectures for approximately seven hours on the basics of trading Forex and all of the details about this single trading system. The course includes downloadable material with lots of valuable information supporting the lectures. On top of that, Gabriel will provide a series of monthly follow-up online group calls to answer questions and share ideas. You don’t want to miss this!

Low Risk Course

This is a low-risk opportunity for our customers who have been requesting an online version of the Forex trading course. Students can benefit from their enrollment in the course in several ways:

• You can spend little money and learn an excellent trading system that has plentiful opportunities on multiple timeframes.
• You can watch the video lectures from the comfort of your home.
• through the course at your own speed. You can finish the course as quickly as one day for an introductory look at this system, or spread it across weeks to obtain mastery.
• You can review the entire course or you can focus in on reviewing certain sections.  Watch it as many times as you like during your one year subscription period.
• If you would eventually like to learn other Forex trading systems in person in an interactive learning environment, you can apply most of your purchase price for the e-learning course as credit towards Gabriel’s 3-day on-site workshop.
• The course isn’t over when you finish watching the lectures. You can ask questions and interact with other traders during a series of up to three follow-up calls Gabriel hosts for e-learning course students.

Why Trade Forex?

Van Tharp foresees excellent trading opportunities in the currency market over the next few years because several big-picture forces are strong at work. Primarily, central banks will continue their attempts to influence the relative value of their currencies against other currencies. Combine this with the imbalances caused by trade and debt levels and we have a currency market that promises to remain lively for some time to come.

Add one important —and practical— point for individual traders to this attractive and built in longer-term volatility: Forex has evolved into a market in which individual investors can trade efficiently at low transaction costs — even with a very small trading account. This wasn’t always the case. Just ten or fifteen years ago, individual traders had to have a significant amount of capital to open a Forex trading account, and these accounts were only available at big money-center banks. The expansion of the Forex market over the last decade however, has made it very accessible for individual traders with low transaction costs and easy to use platforms. A large group of retail traders has grown to complement the ever-present institutional trading which in the end, has created an even larger and more liquid currencies market. In fact, Foreign Exchange is the biggest and most liquid financial market in the world. If you actively trade equities or options right now, think about trading/investing a less correlated asset class — Forex.

Why Learn the Busted Breakout Trade Online?

Van Tharp Institute clients have been requesting a Forex Trading e-learning course consistently for the last few years. Now we’re proud to present this online course that will show you what it takes to trade Forex and teach you one great trading system.

It’s a system you will have a lot of fun with as it capitalizes on fishing for stops of unexperienced traders who get caught in bad trades (bull traps and bear traps).

You can find the setup pattern in any chart – long term charts and in short term charts. Once you know how to spot them, you’ll probably be surprised at how many appear. If you prefer position trades lasting weeks or months, look at the GBPNZD pair using weekly bars. The long consolidation area from mid-2016 to early 2017 set-up the trader trap – it just snapped catching unexperienced countertrend traders. This is a short trade setup with a very attractive reward to risk ratio.

If you prefer a very short timeframe, see the 1min bar chart of the EURUSD pair below from July 6, 2017. Can you can see the consolidation area and where the breakout below the range failed (or “busted” as Gabriel says)? You can study how Gabriel framed a long trade based on this setup and see the price level for the entry, initial stop, likely stop-runs, and eventual target.

Watch for yourself in Gabriel’s video how this trade capitalized on the stop run levels and then continued to run after reaching the target price.

Can You Capitalize on Forex Trading and Enjoy an International Lifestyle? 

People are often attracted to trading because you are free to trade from anywhere on the globe that you can find a decent Internet connection. That aspect of trading also appealed to Gabriel — who lived an international lifestyle even as a kid. Born in Switzerland of Greek descent, he lived most of his life in Germany but now mostly stays in South America. It’s no wonder foreign currency trading is practically in his blood!

Starting in 1985, Gabriel started reading everything he could get his hands on to understand how to trade. He was so young when he started trading futures in the US markets that his parents had to sign for him to make trading possible. After earning a degree in business administration, his passion for the capital markets led him to seek a job in asset management. For over ten years, he worked for PIMCO at AllianzGI — one of the top 5 global investment managers. Gabriel decided to pursue his passion for trading the capital markets further by enrolling in Dr. Tharp’s Super Trader program. In the program, he had to unlearn most of what he’d been taught about trading and adopt new ways of thinking that would allow him to see the world with a different perspective.

Get Van Tharp – Forex Trading Systems, The Busted Breakout System  at Sendcourse.com.

In 2010 he realized his ultimate goal by graduating from the Van Tharp Super Trader program and transitioning to his dream life of trading professionally. Gabriel now spends all of his time trading Forex (among other trading instruments, like commodities and equity futures) and traveling the world. He does not answer to a boss at a job. Forex markets are always open no matter the time zone, he can trade from anywhere in the world and whenever it makes sense for his schedule.

But don’t get the wrong idea. Gabriel has a lot of freedom and loves his trading — he still works hard. In addition to trading his account and developing new systems, he helps other traders by writing about trading and Forex. His articles have been published in several international language magazines such as Traders’ in the US (see: How To Develop a Trading System, December 2015).

Gabriel is also a committed trading teacher. Teaching workshops for the Van Tharp Institute was a goal even before he graduated from the Super Trader program. Super Trader work is comparable to graduate level university programs but Gabriel finished in almost record time.  That hard work and passion show through in the Forex workshop that he created, just ask any of his previous students or watch the testimonial videos below.

During the Super Trader program, Gabriel worked with Van Tharp for more than a year to develop most of the trading systems he uses today. Gabriel has specialized in designing and trading systems based on visual chart patterns he finds in the Forex market across all timeframes. He has been teaching several trading systems at his Forex Trading Systems workshop for the last five years to many other traders who have put them to use.

Course Content

The Theory: All You Need to Know About Forex

Gabriel dedicates several hours of lectures to specifics of trading the Forex market and answers such questions as:

• Why trade Forex in the first place?
• What are the advantages and drawbacks of trading Forex versus other asset classes?
• What are the main market characteristics of Forex trading versus other markets and who are the Forex market participants?
• What methods tend to work best in the Forex market?
• All you need to know about Forex trading sessions and the currency pairs.
• How Forex price chart characteristics differ than stocks or futures.
• What to look for in a Forex broker and what to try and avoid in a Forex broker.
• Why Forex may actually be the best market for learning trading by new traders.
• What are the trading edges that work best in Forex?

The Method

In this Elearning course, Gabriel discusses various Forex trading ideas and teaches the full set of rules for one of his trading system. Because the system is trend-based, the trades usually tend to evolve over a timeframe of anywhere from several hours to a couple of days (or even weeks, in the case of strong trends). You can choose a swing trading or day trading timeframe as the system uses primarily 5-min, 15-min, 60-min, 240-min and Daily candle charts. Because the patterns are fractal, however, they can be traded with longer timeframe bars as well. One of Gabriel’s former workshop students from Australia is successfully trading the system using hourly and 4 hour bars. The system can also be traded across a wide range of currency pairs though Gabriel tends to prefer the large liquid pairs.

The System

Gabriel developed and refined his Busted Breakout system on the concept of trend-following while he was still enrolled in the Super Trader program.

The system has a high win rate (about 65%) and it takes advantage of a price pattern that happens again and again in the charts — breakout failures. The main advantage of this is that it benefits from running for other peoples’ stops. This is a unique edge of the system making the trade break-even early on. Watching 15-minute charts for 4-6 hours a day and trading only the biggest, most liquid currency pairs, the system finds easily more than 150 trades per year. The pattern works equally well on 5min, 60min and 240min charts so the trade opportunity per year can be much higher depending how you trade.

Gabriel is confident that someone with the programming skills could turn the system into a well-performing automated trading system.

The Results

Gabriel’s system has an annual System Quality Number™ score of 4.6 which makes it an “Excellent” performer using Van’s trading system measurement scale. You can use position sizing strategies to achieve your trading objectives more easily with a system that has a high SQN score — and 4.6 is high. After learning the system, you can trade any currency pair, in shorter time frames or longer time frames! Due to the fractal nature of markets the system works equally well on timeframes as short as a 1min chart and as long as end-of-month prices. You have plenty of flexibility to adapt the systems so it fits you.

Here’s what one live workshop attendee wrote about his experience trading the systems at home:

“Firstly Gabriel’s systems are quite a remarkable edge, and the expectunity is much higher than claimed. Taking out trader inefficiency, after the second month I have been able to replicate Gabriel’s own results in terms of win rate, expectancy and SQN. 

This is the sort of super performance I always dreamed of. 

I have a feeling of “my search is over” with regard to looking for new systems and trading ideas, and I have a framework for monitoring my own performance in spiritual/emotional as well as mechanical terms. I no longer have time to waste, I have a very clear idea of what needs to be done to improve my trading and I am motivated to achieve my goals.

I am a dramatically improved trader right now, and I have Gabriel to thank for it. I consider myself an accomplished system builder and there is no way I could ever come up with a system as well thought out as Gabriel’s. It is a testament to the super trader process, which I follow faithfully.

Gabriel has been extremely helpful after the seminar also, critiquing my trades, and I am extremely grateful to have met him.”

—Scott P., Trader from Australia

Practice the Rules for The System in the Workshop

Have you ever enrolled in a trading course that taught a lot of methodology and a bunch of rules, only to find that you had trouble trading it? Gabriel has had that experience and wants to better prepare the traders who enroll in this course.

Students come away from the e-learning course with a solid understanding of the trading process for the system because they will watch how the setups, entries and exits are executed. Gabriel makes extensive use of a trading simulator (live history replay) with which actual setups are traded in class as if “live.” So you finish the course already having a good idea on how the trades of the system look and feel like. Apart from that Gabriel discusses many screenshot examples to explain what good setups look like and what to notice about setups that never offer an entry.  In the poor setup case studies, he discusses what is missing and why.

After thoroughly reviewing the system rules, Gabriel slowly walks you through a number of trades. He uses the same trading screen layout that he uses to trade his account and he shows you how to identify the critical elements of setups, entries and exits. All of the simulations use recorded historical data run on a software system that reproduces the price charts from the date and time in the live market. You will be able to watch the setups evolve, in fast-forward mode, as he explains how to prepare for the entry order and initial stop order. The next step involves executing the very specific exit algorithm he teaches. After walking you through several simulations, Gabriel involves the students in the decision process for pattern detection, entry and exits as they start to acquire competence. Gabriel also provides you with pages of additional trade examples to study further. Finally, Gabriel leaves you with some valuable advice about effective ways to get additional practice trading the rules before you trade the system with your own capital.

The Follow Up

Gabriel’s passion for helping people grow in many aspects of their lives is one of the reasons for his follow up work with students after every workshop — and now with students of this online course.  Gabriel will provide a series of monthly follow-up online group calls to answer your questions and to share his ideas.  You have the chance to interact with other traders who are trading Gabriel’s systems as well.

Top Ten Reasons to Trade Forex

Top Ten Reasons to Trade Forex by Gabriel

As recently as the late 1990s, a “veil of mystery” shrouded Forex trading. Many traders had beliefs that sounded something like these:

• Forex is the “supreme discipline” of banks & hedge funds… I am just an individual trader.
• A 24 hour-market? How will I work and sleep if I have to watch the market 24 hours?
• Trading currencies means trading entire economies… that’s too much to follow or understand.
• I have too little capital to be able to compete on a level playing field with the big boys.

Fast forward to now — I still hear those kinds of statements today even though everything about the currency market has changed. What is the reality of Forex trading then today?  Since the US federal government deregulated Forex trading (Foreign Exchange or FX) for retail traders in 2000 (the CFMA act), the market has more than quadrupled in size and transformed completely making it easily accessible  to retail traders.

If you aren’t trading Forex in any way right now, here are the top ten reasons why you should consider it:

1. Have you ever been stuck in a position overnight dreading the large gap at the open?

FX is a very large, very liquid market that trades around the clock so opening gaps are effectively eliminated.

2. How often do you have trouble finding a decent trend?

You can always find good trends in FX because oceans of money are flowing between countries as the relative strength of their economies changes constantly.

3. What if you can only trade for the part of the day that doesn’t work well (or doesn’t work at all) for your market?

Trade FX at a time of the day that fits your schedule best.

4. Are you tired of slippage, partial fills, and running up large trading commissions and fees?

You get low cost and efficient order management in FX.

5. Do you ever enter a position that just doesn’t seem to follow the pattern you are trading?

FX makes an ideal market for charting and pattern trading from 1min to Monthly charts because of its consistency.

6. Do most of your trading candidates seem to move together — and not offer setups on a frequent enough interval?

Most currency pair prices move independently.

7. Does your net worth decrease when your home country currency weakens?

FX offers the ultimate way to diversify your net worth and hedge your risk to it. Hedge a weakening currency or profit by trading it rather than simply watching it fall.

8. How often do large, swift price moves surprise you and you can’t “get out of the way” quickly enough?.

Price movements in FX tend to be smoother than in most other markets which makes FX the ideal asset class to learn how to trade it.

9. Do you think you understand Tharp Think principles and wonder how to put them into use?.

Tharp Think principles apply better to FX than with any other asset class.

10. Whether you are a long term trend follower, a fundamentals analyst, or a pure technician, does your preferred approach not work so well in your preferred market? Do so-called successful strategies not seem to fit you?

Out of any asset class, FX allows you the most flexibility to choose a trading style and a timeframe that fits you best.

Given this powerful list, why aren’t you trading Forex or at least planning to?—Gabriel