5 comments about Sold Short : Uncovering Deception in the Markets.

1. I have been following Asensio since the Solv-Ex scandal. A friend of mine tried to convince me to invest in Solv-Ex. I found Asensio on when I started to research the stock.
   
   I never invested in Solvex because of Asensio. My friend lost about 100K.
   
   This man is brilliant. He has been incredibly accurate. He is living proof that the effecient market theory is impossibly wrong.
   
   The interesting thing to note is the venom that is railed against him. Read these reviews on Amazon!
   
   Asensio's current short pick is KFx. KFx has a ratio of stock price to company sales of over 1,200. Its revenue in the past four quarters was about $950,000, and the stock market values the company at over $1 billion.
   
   Do the math. This man is a market hero.



2. This book was a complete waste of my time. This guy is so full of ficticious hyperbole it makes me want to hurl. Asensio is the biggest cheat and crook on wall street. No wonder he keeps getting fined by the NASD and banned from the market. Yet, he continues to try and decieve people by creating phony off-shore accounts and hiding behind shell companies. Don't ever do business with this creep or buy his book, he will burn you.



3. My original hope when picking this book up from the library was to learn about shorting stocks. Unfortunately Manuel Asensio's book is written on a level where few people can even relate. Mr. Asensio speaks in a language that only very experienced stock shorters can even understand. Whereas some of Asensio's use of language is a bit colorful, he writes wildly about all these key names like his audience is completely familiar with unknown CEO's from unknown companies. Why not talk about some of the big time tech stocks that tanked in the early 2000's like Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and the late Enron? I actually stopped reading this book midway because of the incessant name dropping.

   There are a few pages where Ansensio talks about stock shorting basics and how he started in the business. Maybe if Ansensio related to a wider audience, this book would hae a good reputation. Like this he merely talks how he uncovers terrible fraud and should be viewed as a champion of justice. Mr. Ansensio, you need a big time reality check.




4. On website AsensioExposed.com you'll find what every investor needs to know about short-seller Manuel Asensio. But will never hear from him.Great reading!



5. The whole book is about how "he" shorted stocks. Nothing about technical or even fundamental analysis.

   As the other reader commented earlier, he would short a stock and then go "bad mouth" or "share his insights" on the website or in public paper.

   Gained nothing about reading this book. Save your money for other books !

5 comments about How the Options Markets Work (New York Institute of Finance).

1. Mr. Walker is clear and concise in his depiction of how the options markets work. He details various strategies and makes options investing understandable to those new to it.

   In my 11 years as a futures investor, broker, and author, I have never seen someone with as much grasp of options investing as Mr.Walker and have the capability to explain it.




2. Comprehensive, simple, full of examples - worth the money.



3. Yes, As a beginner I can confidently say I know what option is, it's uses and the risk involve. The Author did not only explain the principle but gave practicable example everyone can relate to. All in simple and plain English, you don't need to have been to a school of economy to know what an option is. With the help of this book, I can't look stupid when others uses terminologies relating to option. Keep up the good work Joseph.



4. If i had to pick a book that explained the most about options to the layman in the clearest language in the fewest pages, this would be it.

   a must read for anybody who wants to understand how to use options




5. Good introductory book with plenty of examples. Good layout too. Many different options trading techniques are discussed, each with an indication of how risky it is. It even suggests leaving some of the more advanced techniques to the professionals, or more experienced traders - good advice.

5 comments about Wall Street Money Machine Vol. 4 (with Audio CD).

1. This book is not for neophytes, as the information it preaches could be hazardous to your wealth. Wade offers some strategies that can work in expert hands (such as writing covered calls), but are not for amateurs. He doesn't really stress the numerous dangers of his system.
   
   First, when you write a call you need to have high implied volatilty (to ensure that the premium is large enough to be worthwhile). Volatility is a function of the potential for risk and reward. Stocks that are very risky tend to have high volatility. In other words, if you tried to write covered calls with a safe stock like Walmart or Colgate, you won't get paid anything for the call and his strategy won't work. You have to write calls on "hot" stocks...like the Internet darlings of 1999. (when Cook's first book came out) Guess what happened to THOSE stocks? The strategy worked for a while, then most dot-coms/Internet darlings lost 90% of their value. Any "protection" you got from the call did NOT make up for the horrendous losses you took on the stock.
   
   Furthermore, Wade encourages the use of margin to increase returns. (He talks about it a lot in WMM #5). The trouble is, once you use margin then the broker will sell you out of your position if it goes down enough to trigger a margin call. Remember the Stock Market Crash of 2008-2009? With Wade's strategy you would have been closed out of ALL of your stocks had you used margin and been totally BANKRUPTED.
   
   It would be even worse if you used his "Bull-Call Spread" strategy. As soon as the underlying stock price fell below the lower-priced call that you bought in the spread, your position becomes worthless. Even a well-diversified strategy of Bull-Call Spreads would have BANKRUPTED YOU during the recent market crash. For example, if you had bought a call on a solar stock at $100 and sold a call at $130, then the stock price fell to $50.....your position is now worth ZERO. All the bought and sold calls would have expired WORTHLESS and ALL YOUR MONEY IS LOST. Try it. Take the "Bull-Call" strategy and imagine you were using it throughout 2008 with lots of the "hot" commodity and solar stocks (that had high volatility). Look at what happened to the stock prices. I guarantee that ALL of your bull-call spreads would have expired worthless across the board and you would have lost ALL your money! Kiss your retirement goodbye. This is why you shouldn't take financial advice from Wade Cook. He is NOT an expert. He does NOT have a Finance Degree, has not passed the securities courses, and does not hold the CFA designation. He is just some amateur guy who read a few books about option strategies, written by other authors years before him, and then claimed this "system" as his own.
   
   The same terrible results would have happened had you written puts. In fact, as the volatility increased during the recent crash, the margin requirements on the puts alone would have caused your broker to close out your positions. If they were cash covered puts then you probably would have ended up buying Lehman Brothers at $40 a share and watched it go to zero. Or Citibank at $35 and watched it go to $3.
   
   Even with covered calls during a bull market, your flexibility is limited. You can't really sell the stock on an uptick because you need it to cover the call. When the stock price goes up, so does the call option's price (which you would have to buy back at a higher price and this eats up most of your profit.) If you just hold on until expiry and plan to roll it over, then you will keep doing this until you hit a big bear market someday and lose everything. Its akin to picking up nickels in front of a bulldozer. You might make lots of small profits if you are temporarily lucky, but eventually you WILL take a massive, game-ending loss during the inevitable bear market to come.
   
   Bottom Line: Amateur investors should NEVER use any of these strategies. In fact, amateur investors have NO business being in the stock market at all in individual stocks. They should only dollar-cost average into broad-based, low-cost ETF's (like the S&P 500) and have a long-term holding period. There is no easy money on Wall Street for amateurs. Unless you have a Finance Degree, the proper emotional framework, decades worth of both direct and vicarious experience, and a 180+ IQ, (or you cheat with inside information) stay away from this game...



2. I have read a lot of books on investing cause I am quite serious about making a living out of the stock market.
   
   I had reached the point where I thought I knew the three main ingredients of a successful trader:
   1.- Risk managmente and profit protection. Not explained at all in most books but it is the most important part.
   2.- How to identify entry points.
   3.- What product to use to invest.
   
   I had decided after reading cook's book money machine 4 that I would use options spreads as the investment product. Then I went to the real life option prices only to see to my dismay that when the direction of a stock is clear to me (as cook says, after doing my homework) it was impossible to do a profitable spread or even just the selling part.
   
   I think he just made up the numbers in the examples. He is just a good seller who made in a single year 40 million $ with his books and seminars.
   
   Dont' buy this book.



3. In this fourth installment of the Wall Street Money Machine series, financial expert Wade Cook teaches you how to work spreads. How to make money when the market goes up, down or sideways. This is the only book that I know of that deals exclusively with the topic of spreads.



4. Personally, I think that Wade should have written this book right along with his first Wall Street book. The information is vital to trading options and it is information that was unavailable prior to the books release, but has been copied since.

   Wall Street Money Machine Vol 4 takes the mystery out of option trading. It will help you make more successful trades. As we are going back into a 1990's type of stock market, this information is especially timely.




5. WSMM#4 is not a good book, it is an exellent book. This is the book for trading options and doing covered calls. Interesting is that a covered call book came out in 2003 that is almost exactly like WSMM#4 which was released over 3 years ago. Also interesting is that book also sells for about double the cost of WSMM#4. Go with WSMM#4. The original. The best.

5 comments about Volatility and Correlation: The Perfect Hedger and the Fox (Wiley Finance).

1. Between major conventional military wars, the economic wars continue.
   
   This is a snapshot of the financial instrument instrument war by a sophisticated player. Escalation in this war is rapid, the book was surely dated before publication, however, considering the massive collateral damage this war is causing, it is a good thing to have a place where non-players can get a glimpse of the process.



2. I have read this text from cover to cover twice. It is much easier to understand its organization the second time around. The reviewer who complained that it feels disjointed perhaps simply didn't connect with the key messages running through the book. Having assumed (incorrectly) that the intro chapters were a bunch of fluff typical of these texts, I glossed over the intro the first time around. You'll benefit greatly if you scan the book, then go re-read the intro. It's all there put together painstakingly by an author who must have spent an inordinate amount of care and effort trying to make his points clear.
   
   Another reviewer complains that it's verbose. Perhaps, but Rebonato really drives his points home by explaining the same thing from multiple angles and repeats himself at just the right points to keep you on the right track. I can see how somebody impatient can get annoyed by it, but if you are willing to invest time and read his prose - especially the intro chapters - carefully, the insight gained is definitely worth it. Not verbose at all in my view. Every paragraph has a purpose if you understand what he's trying to communicate.
   
   It's an advanced text. Don't waste your time if you just learned what a call option it. There are more relevant texts for you out there. You should also have covered basics of stochastic calculus (see Neftci for one). For somebody who has traded vol and wanted to go deeper this book is pure gold. I love it as much as I love Taleb's Dynamic Hedging, albeit Taleb is much less formal and rigorous. What's common betw the two is the depth of original insight relevant to a trader not typically found in the sea of literature on derivs.



3. If you are really into exotics, then this book will provide a lot. It is the most extensive book that I know and it is written by a trader for traders. It has some serious weaknesses though: its structure is somewhat chaotic and it seems as if the chapters have just been pasted together from different sources. On top of that, it is somewhat lengthy.
   
   If you want to trade exotics, you have to read it anyway...



4. This is an extra-ordinary book by one of the best in the field. Very unique perspective on theory and practice of pricing and hedging. Wish it was bit less verbose though.



5. There are many books on financial modeling currently available and each has a different approach to presenting the subject matter. Some endeavor to present rigorous mathematical formalism and real-world practical examples are kept to a minimum or are completely absent. Others, and there are many of these, only sketch the mathematical details and present many (usually trivial) examples using software tools such as EXCEL or SAS. Then there are those books that attempt to explain in detail the intuition and meaning behind the concepts used in financial modeling, and never tire at giving readers the insight they need in order to become successful financial analysts/modelers. For reasons unknown, these books are rare, but when one comes across them they definitely stand apart from the others in terms of their high didactic quality. Reading these books is sheer pleasure, and no matter how high they are priced their readers are still getting a bargain.
   
   This book is one of these, and readers who want a sound treatment of the mathematical theory of options along with insightful motivations behind this theory should reserve some time to study it. And it is a book that should be read not only by those who want to enter into the field of financial engineering, but also by seasoned professionals who need this kind of insight, if only to be able to better explain the underlying concepts to administrators and managers. It could also be very useful to instructors in the many financial engineering departments throughout the world. Hundreds of millions of dollars are devoted to financial modeling at the present time, and this is only likely to increase in the years to come, despite the pronouncements of some who are skeptical as to its value, pointing to the current strains in the credit markets as proof of its inefficacy.
   
   Some examples of the clarity and insight that the author brings to his writing include the following:
   * The discussion of the notion of a risk-neutral measure and the resulting Girsanov's theorem. This is a topic that is usually treated cavalierly in most books on financial modeling, but in this one the author motivates it in the context of the replication of option payoff. The side constraint `the absence of arbitrage' guarantees a unique price for option, and the author begins his motivation by considering the familiar approach via partial differential equations. But after this discussion he believes that arriving at and understanding Girsanov's theorem is best done outside of the continuous time framework, due to the latter's complexity. His ensuing discussion, done in the binomial approximation, proves its didactic power, for the author outlines four different approaches to the evaluation of the fair price of a contingent claim. The fourth one on risk-neutral valuation is the key to his explanation of Girsanov's theorem. Along the way, the Radon-Nikodym derivative appears, and in a way that is much more understandable than merely stating it as a definition, as it typically the case in books on real analysis. In this book it appears when one considers "switching numeraires" and the author does a beautiful job in explaining how this is connected with the equivalence of measures and Girsanov's theorem.
   * More precise definitions of terms typically used in discussions on option pricing and general financial engineering and why this precision is necessary when engaging in financial modeling.
   * The discussion on the difference between hedging with spot transactions in equity forward contracts versus interest-rate forward contracts. This discussion is generalized from forward contracts to options on equity or FX forwards, and gives insight into the difference between the "Black" world and the "Black-Scholes" world and the complexity of hedging with interest-rate derivatives.
   * Detailed discussion and insights into the efficacy of hedging, in both the "real" and "risk-adjusted" contexts.
   * The discussion on the Crouhy-Galai argument as to the need for including both the total variance and the instantaneous volatility in obtaining an optimal hedge.
   
   Note: This review is based on a reading of four chapters of the book.

No comments about Introduction to Option-Adjusted Spread Analysis: Revised and Expanded Third Edition of the OAS Classic by Tom Windas.

2 comments about CBOT Handbook of Futures and Options.

1. This book has helped me understand a lot of difficult concepts and jargons. Definitely recommend this book if you're new to the trading industry.



2. Very useful, full of information regarding futures trading and its history. Great for beginning traders and somewhat experienced traders as well.

1 comments about All About Options: From the Inside Out.

1. Caution newcomers to options trading:

   This book tries to cover the wide field of both futures and stock option trading in under 200 pages. There is no step-by-step explanation of the mechanics of option trading that a newby to option trading will require. If you have the financial resources to even consider options trading, you can afford to spend a few dollars extra and buy the classic "Options as a Strategic Investment" by Lawrence McMillan. There are good reasons why this book sold over 100,000 copies. As a newcomer to options I found its approach far more methodical and understandable than "All about Options from the Inside Out", which will be retired to a remote corner of my library.

5 comments about All About Options.

1. McCafferty may be a trader, but he's no writer. The book is like a cascade of thoughts and knowledge with no organization. Here's a thought, if I want to learn about futures, I'll look for a book called "All About Futures". Poor math aside, instead of babbling on about Deltas and Offset strategies in the first chapter, how about telling me how to read a quote, and where to go to get them. The cover says "The best software programs for hedging or speculating". In fifteen pages of "info" he happens to mention ONE fairly specialized software program. After learning all of the fundamentals of Options and Options trading, I might find value in some of the points in this book, but by then I'm sure I will have found one with a much less confusing approach.



2. I was introduced to options with this book around 1999. As I tried to read it again today 8 years later with much gained experience I realized how poorly written and edited this book is. I'm sure it's not the editor's fault as they are most likely not familiar with derivatives. Even the basics of options are botched in this poor excuse of a book. The author emphasizes that you be clear in communication with your broker when taking/offsetting positions. How ironic. The author is not even capable of basic math. 5000 x $.01 = $500? or 5000 x $.02 = $1000? Sad. The product of our American public school system? Don't bother and look elsewhere. You'd be hard pressed to find anything more poorly written than this.



3. Mr. McCafferty's book seeks to provide a comprehensive review of options trading, and it is filled with what could be helpful and illustrative examples. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lack of editing. This means, for instance, that many of the examples appear to have incorrect math, as compared to the written description of how they are supposed to work. This can leave the reader confused as to which is correct.

   Similarly, because the details of the basic groundwork are partly contradictory, the reader is left with less confidence as the book becomes more complex.

   This is a great book for someone who is already comfortable with the basics of options, but if you are looking for an introductory text on options, try "Options for Dummies" or a similar book.




4. I don't know what the other reviewers were thinking. This is the best book I have read yet (and I have read quite a few) to give you a very clear understanding of the options market and how to play it. I highly recommend it as a great place to start if you ever thought about getting into it.



5. I read hundreds of books and never write reviews. This book is so poorly written that I was compelled to write this review.

   If you just read the first 5 pages of the book, you will get an idea how poor a writer its author is. The first chapter is about basics of Options. However, even for someone like me who is experienced in stock trading, it was most confusing.

   I dont know how to get a refund for this aweful book but I will stay away from any books written by this author and its publisher for publsihing this junk.

5 comments about Pricing Convertible Bonds.

1. There are not too many books on converts, so i tought i buy it. I just tought this book is more detailed on converts.
   
   It comes with a floppy disk, nobody uses disks anymore.
   
   I would not recommend this book.



2. Sometimes reads like a smorgasbord of topics and facts. Don't see the key topics and themese show through in a consistent manner. Never even talks about other models and risk management/hedging challenges in these respects...



3. It's amazing that nobody has written a decent book on convertible bonds. This is the best in a very weak selection.
   The book essentially starts at Chapter 6. If he wanted to write a book on modelling in excel he should have thougt about doing it before Jackson and Staunton (Modelling in Excel and vba). However, there isn't any vba here. How another reviewer can say that the pace accelerates enough to keep the attention of the expert is crazy, Chapters 1-5 are very irritating; as I say, they might be fine in another book.
   The author's avoidance of vba is a drawback. Why not? It is a logical thing to do.
   In the last couple of chapters, the author stops doing excel and just shows the graphs. He even freely refers to a embeded tree spreadsheet and then nonchalently points out that it isn't on the disk provided. Why not?
   The real reason is that the binomial method becomes completely unworkable as soon as one introduces complications. One needs to use finite difference methods. FDMs are not even mentioned in this book. The author places his presentation as the state of the art, it isn't. I learned more in 4 pages of one of Wilmott's books (Mr. Numerical DE Solver) [Paul WIlmott on Quantitative Finance, section on convertible bonds] than I did from this book.
   If you are interested in building models of convertibles, that can take into account any but the most vanilla features, this is not the place. For a conceptual non-quantitative overview, fine.



4. This is a very good book. Connolly starts from the beginning, assuming you know nothing, but accelerates at just the right rate to hang on to beginners and not to annoy people who already know the basics. Admittedly, if you're a quant you'll know all this stuff (anyway, if you're already a quant you shouldn't need to buy a book on the subject in the first place). If you're not a quant, it's a fine introduction to how to model convertibles. In fact, there's enough information here for you to have a go at writing your own toy model that takes into account most of the complexities of CBs (including puts and resets), although you'd be a trifle crazy - or extremely confident - to start trading off a model you implemented *only* having read this book.

   This is an excellent book for anyone who is a user of CB models, who understands the inputs and outputs, and who wants to know more about what's going on inside the model "black box".




5. Connolly has written a useful, practical book for those who are attempting to price these (increasingly) complex instruments. For more abstract or academic treatments of the topic, seek other sources and the innumerable academic journals of quant finance. But for a nut-work �gotta-price-this-bugger-�cause-my-boss-asked-me-to-and-I�m-the-quant-guy-in-the-shop� this guide, while not strictly a �cookbook,� is indispensable. Although it begins at a relatively basic level, it clearly and concisely explains every technique from the simple (y = mx + b) and then step-by-step ratchets up to the Excel-samuri level (MIN and MAX tests after multiple operations of option pricing trees (bi-nomial and tri-nomial)).

   I limited my rating to four stars, however, because Connolly only mentions in passing the available (expensive) software-house products that do many of the same things his example spreadsheets do. Fin software needs critics, and I can think of no one better placed than the author to examine them and give front-line quant analysts his views.

   In addition, like most worker bees, I try never to reinvent the wheel (programming in C++ and VB or anything else for this kinda thing is undiluted soul-destroying tedium), but at the same time want to thoroughly check out the foundational theory and techniques someone applied before I risk my career on someone else�s work. In this case, a good list of the academic sources and current financial literature on the topic would have been a useful and welcome addition to this slender volume.

   I suppose a final criticism is that we have all seen the exponential growth of credit derivatives in the past few years. Connolly�s next edition will need to address the topic of credit derivatives in relation to convertible bonds, as their use in combination with CBs provides alternate hedging, investment, and speculative strategies not explicitly considered in this book.

5 comments about The Option Advisor: Wealth-Building Techniques Using Equity & Index Options (A Marketplace Book).

1. Enen though the copyright is long in the tooth, the information and ideas are current and valid. I have been doing options for over 3 years and I regret that I did not read this book first. I'd be less poor and, hopefully, much wiser. If you are thinking of doing options and need a very solid intro, you should read this book.



2. This book is fantastic. Bernie Schaeffer is so full of knowledge on options that I hope he comes out with a new book soon! Check out other books he has contributed to like Breakthroughs in Technical Analysis, New Thinking in Technical Analysis, and the SFO Online Trading Book. They're all full of information and so useful.



3. I have been trying to find money management examples in various financial trading books. I pick up this book and find an amazing table (Table 4.2) on page 96, "Bottom Line Impact: Percentage of Capital Allocated Per Trade".
   
   How much you allocate per trade has an immense effect on your overall rates of return. Over-trading your account is very dangerous. Mr. Schaeffer uses a table on page 96 to show the dramatic end result of using 10, 20 or 50% of your capital for each option trade. Wow! But imagine my surprise when I tried to replicate in Excel the table that he posts. It was only then that I discovered that there are three pairs of lines that are, I believe, wrong. In a 29-line table, there are three pairs of lines that duplicate each other with the same results. My results in Excel show dramatically different results than what Mr. Schaeffer shows. Another odd thing, even above the first pair of lines that are wrong, the table is off by a few pennies, not very much. This chart does not count commisions or slippage.
   
   Yes, Mr. Schaeffer, there is a dramatic difference in returns. But it is not what you show, and it is not what you would expect either!!
   
   Chapters 3 and 4 were the best parts of the book, and included a great list "Top 10 Rationalizations Made by the the Average Option Trader". Otherwise, there are better options books.



4. This book did provide some pretty good pieces of information to take away, but unfortunately, the rest of the book is pretty poor. I disagree with his trading style and philosophy. Obviously it works for him since he's been trading for awhile, but it doesn't seem to click with many. Also, this is a very old book. I got sick and tired of reading about this new invention called the internet and how you can actually trade on it and so forth. If a book is any good, it ought to be updated periodically. Like I said, there was some valuable information. But getting through the rest of the book to find it was a pain. If you're going to buy it, buy it used.



5. As tracked by Mark Hulbert, following Schaeffer's Options Advisor newsletter's advice would have resulted in a compounded annual loss of 4.7% per year over a period of time when the market GAINED 12.7% per year. While his newsletter has not lost money in recent years it has trailed the S&P 500 over 1-, 3-, 5-, 10-, and 15-year time periods.
   
   Is that kind of advice worth paying for and worth spending your time to read? I think not.