4 comments about The Insider's Automatic Options Strategy: How to Win on Better Than 9 out of 10 Trades with Extremely Low Risk.

1. I purchased this book in the mid 1990s, and began trading commodities options with a small account (because I did not have enought capital to meet the margin requirements for trading the stock indexes). I traded crude oil short spreads exclusively, and made money consistently for several months. However, I ignored the money management rules to my peril. I did not close out positions that were in the money at expiration, thinking that I would simply buy the contracts to cover the options that were exercised. WRONG!!! The market went limit up for several days, and when I was finally able to get out, I had given back 10 months worth of profits. I was so shaken by the experience that I stopped trading for a long time. Although I agree with another reviewer that the text can be confusing, and Dr. Schiller does erroneously mix his terms, the underlying statistical model appears valid. I paper-traded the system based on historical and real-time data before committing money to it, and I actually used it profitably for some time. I would consider the book a useful addition to a trader's library, subject to the caveats mentioned.



2. A friend insisted he'd learned by reading this book how to safely and consistently generate sizeable sums of money by selling puts using the market indexes. In fact, he said I was stupid if I didn't do the same. That was when the S&P 500 was above 1000. Now he no longer wants to talk the market and registers only pain when I broach the subject. Even without reading the book, I have to question whether the title isn't misleading. Is it really insider's information? Is it really automatic? And is it really "extremely low risk'? (Unlike my friend, the author at least stops short of calling it "no risk.")



3. Which is worse, a NYC taxi driver (Wade Cook) giving oversimplified financial advise, or a PhD computer programmer writing on investments? The common denominator is that both present and overemphasize the "sure thing" concept.

   Mr Schiller demonstrates why people with PhD in computer science should not write a book on investment. The intro itself is misleading with "no risk, short spread,protected straddle" in bold print in the same paragraph. Three shortcomings 1) terminology is absolutely WRONG; 2) understanding of "assignment" GROSSLY FLAWED; and 3) ignores margin requirements where some examples are not possible on a $50,000 account.

   TERMINOLOGY: What he describes as a "short spread" is actually a short (or naked) straddle - selling a call above the market and a put below the market. By industry standard definition, a "spread" is selling AND buying a call (or put) on the same security at a different strike price. Ironically, what he describes as a "protected straddle" is actually 2 spreads - a call spread and a put spread straddling the market price. He then goes on to explain more complex positions while intermixing spread and straddle terminology.

   ASSIGNMENT: On page 47, he notes that the LONG option in a protected straddle or butterfly spread are "in the money (by design) and subject to involuntary early assignment." He ignores the fact that the LONG position is further out than the SHORT position to create the net credit that he advocates. More important, long options are NEVER assigned, only short options are. Long options are EXERCISED at the instruction on the holder which starts the assignment process.

   MARGIN. Too complex for this review, but totally ignored in the book. Some firms, like Schwab, have $50,000 min equity requirement for naked options on broad based indexes (like the OEX) That is net remaining after the higher of 3 other rules. His $50,000 account wouldn't support 1 contract, much less the total of 17 contracts on page 82. You can't trade yourself into a maintenance call!!!!

   READER BEWARE!




4. Not just theory and abstract ideas, this book states a specific trading plan that I have followed and profited from. The book compares 4 or 5 ideas to compare, but then tells the reader, this is the one to follow. It involves the selling (writing) of far out of the money OEX index options, short term. Performed as the author states, it is a consistant winner with controlled downside risk. Less than 200 pages and easy to read

5 comments about Big Money, Less Risk: Trade Options with foreword by Michael Thomsett.

1. This book is a must for all investors in the stock market whether you are an option trader or stock buyer for your portfolio. It is written very clear and is very easy to understand. He takes a complicated trade and takes you thru the steps of how and what he is doing. He makes it look so easy. His indicators are explained step by step on how to use them and what they mean. I have had the pleasure of attending several of his workshops on technical indicators and trading and find himto be a very sincere and dedicated teacher of matters relating to trading and the stock market.



2. After reading the other reviews I was surprised to find Mark's book so weak. It is mostly a collection of poorly thought out chapters with little useful information. I wouldn't recommend it for even a cursory overview of options and strategies.
   
   I found Mark's self promoting tone awkward. Even in the preface he states:
   
   "... I would ask that you purchase a second or third book for the people that are closest to you."
   
   My copy is going in the trash...it would be an embarrassment in my bookshelf and I certainly wouldn't give it to anyone.



3. Mark has a great way of taking complex concepts and explaining them in an easy to understand manner. This book is very well layed out. He starts with the basics and gradually starts to weave in the more complex strategies throughout the book (The quizzes at the end of each chapter are a nice touch!). He does it in such a way that it just flows and makes so much sense! As an experienced option trader myself, it was great to see not only a "refresher" of what I know, but to be introduced to new concepts as well. A MSUT READ FOR ANY INVESTOR!!



4. Mark Larson has really done a fantastic job writing this book. It is very simple to read with lots of graphs, detailed explanations, and quizzes at the end of each chapter so you can reinforce what you just learned. Whether you are new to investing or you are a seasoned investor you will be sure to find lots of golden nuggets through out this book. Chapter one was very powerful offering some great information on technical indicators, and the golden nugget for me was learning about the Inertia indicator. Thanks so much Mark for writing a outstanding book!



5. I feel this easy to read book features not only a great starting foundation but also numerous tips, techniques, and "lessons learned" that will help all level of traders as they advance in managing their investments. What I liked and found especially unique was Mark's simple lessons on how to look at the market using different indicators and from various vantage points to pull together a more complete picture. I have found that this type of multi-layered approach is essential in developing confidence in my analysis and makes developing and following my investment plans actually possible. Armed with the tools to analyze a stock or the markets in general, later chapters describe options and outline appropriate strategies to apply. This is really an excellent resource I plan to study and reference for many years. Thanks, Mark.

2 comments about Getting Started in Real Estate Investing (Getting Started In.....).

1. This book is great because it gives you a detailed look at real estate investing from an "investor's point of view". It discusses cycles, timing, knowing your numbers, etc. that all other books I have read have either completely left out or barely touched on. To be well-rounded on this subject, this book is an absolute must.



2. As a begginner to real estate I found this book to be a great primer on the fundementals of real estate. It explains some of the factors one must consider in valuing real estate, such as confrmity. It explains the basics of loans and the pros and cons of using an accelerated system. It also explains the real estate investment cycle and how it evolves. This book is just a primer it promotes no particular investment philosophy but just the basics one must know in order to be real estate investor.

3 comments about Options. Plain and Simple: Successful Investment Strategies Without the Rocket Science.

1. In preparing for the Series 7 General Rep Securities Exam one of the most covered topics is on Options. This book did a much more thorough job of explaining the idiosyncracies of options trading than anything else I tried. Made a very complex topic easily understandable. Thanks for helping me get licensed!!



2. This is book is that damn good!
   Better than Courtney Smith's, Better than McMillian (unless you want the math). Better than ...

   Thanks Lenny. Pick up a couple of good pointers.




3. This book has recently crossed the 5,000 sales mark, despite distribution problems and minimal advertising. The reason is that private investors and market professionals find that it clearly explains what options are, and especially, what they do. It is practical, the language is straightforward, and the math is basic.

   I wrote OPS after trading options for ten years in Chicago and London. I have also given many training seminars over the years. The trainees found that all the options books were either too advanced, too theoretical, or poorly written. I finally got fed up and wrote my own.

   This book has sold well because it supplies a demand. If you want to read what other investors have said about it, check out amazon.co.uk. And yes, it covers bear market strategies.

   Good luck in your trading.

   Lenny Jordan

3 comments about Profitability and Systematic Trading: A Quantitative Approach to Profitability, Risk, and Money Management.

1. After reading other books on system trading, my opinion of this book's usefulness changed. Harris summarizes certain realities of trading like the zero sum game, martingale and anti-martingale betting strategies, and the repercussions of commissions on one's trading performance to name a few. In my opinion, a beginner may find many of this book's explanations enlightening while not realizing there is much more to uncover about the practicalities of systematic trading. That's what happened to me. While I was pleased with Harris's treatment of the pitfalls of back testing and intrigued by how price patterns can be used to create a trend following approach with multiple timeframes, I was often left yearning for more detail. For example, how exactly does one go about back testing? What is a good trading program? How do my trading beliefs affect the core of my trading system and ability to implement it? How do I analyze equity curves? Is it really true that there are no robust trend-trading indicators or systems? This is just a sampling of the questions that crossed my mind, and for the answers a reader may have to look elsewhere to find (didn't mean for that to rhyme but it happens all the time). Finally, I am uncertain about why there are so many pages of computer code at the end of this book. Perhaps "there is gold them thar hills", but for a mathematically challenged person with little programming experience like me, the code section and math formulas scattered throughout the text added no immediate value to my reading experience. Maybe it will all make sense in the long run, but for now this book gets 3 stars.



2. Summary: If you are an advanced trader and system developer, then you may find only chapters 4 and 7 interesting, which deal with the profitability rule and trading system synthesis, two concepts that appear to be original work by the author and cannot be found in other books. This book is highly recommended to beginner and intermediate level trading system developers, especially chapter 5 on risk and money management and the section of chapter 6 that discusses the pitfalls of backtesting.
   
   The first chapter of this book focuses on some common misconceptions about the markets and discusses their differences from a trader's perspective. The second chapter is about the zero-sum game nature of trading and the third chapter is about trading methods where the author discusses the potential benefits of considering multiple timeframe when designing trading systems. The author suggests that another way of achieving trend following is to design a suitable position trading method that breaks up a trend into short-term trends, rather than depending on plain vanilla trend-following method that may not work. This is an interesting concept.
   
   Chapter 4 is about the author's profitability rule. This rule is derived in the book and relates three important parameters that play a decisive role in developing and evaluating trading systems. The interesting parts of this chapter is the discussion about the profitability rule and trading time frames and the constraints this rule imposes on scalping for a profit and trend following systems. A few examples at the end of the chapter that illustrate the application of this rule are also included.
   
   Chapter 5 is about the most important aspect of trading, risk and money management. The author discusses the probability of ruin and the fact that there is always a finite probability, although very small, that any profitable in the longer term trading system will generate enough losers in the short-term that can wipe out a trading account. His treatment of this subject is quite quantitative and he uses some Probability Theory equation to justify his thesis. The discussion about trading capital requirements is basic and can be found in many other books. The section on position sizing is restricted to the fixed fractional method with a brief discussion about optimal %Kelly formula. The position sizing equations for fixed fractional risk are derived in this chapter and a few examples are offered to demonstrate their use. At the end of the chapter the author offers a risk and money management plan for beginner and experienced traders.
   
   Chapter 6 covers 20 pages and it is about trading system development using analysis. The author stretches the fact that a trading system is just another market participant and discusses the reasons for deviations between actual and backtesting results on that basis. Several of the equations used in backtesting are presented along with a detailed step-by-step process for trading system development. The author concentrates on the pitfalls of backtesting and how the results one gets may be affected by software limitations and data series. The interesting part is where the author presents a table that is intended to illustrate how the choice of exit strategy and price series adjustments impacts back-testing results. Although many authors have in the past discussed the impact of price series adjustments on back-testing results, this is probably the first book that offers a more detailed treatment of this issue, although brief.
   
   Chapter 7 introduces the reader to the concept of trading system synthesis, which is basically an automated approach to trading system development. This is a very interesting concept and this is probably the only book that offers an introduction to it, although very limited, but one can get the general idea. The author presents 4 examples of trading system synthesis using his own program. The codes for some of the generated systems are given in the appending and in a CDROM in native language for 3 different platforms, Tradestation, Metastock, and Wealth-Lab. I will not go into more detail about the examples but they are very interesting, especially example 2 that discusses delayed trades and example 4 on trend following with price patterns.



3. I was really disappointed in this book, especially the part of the book that is supposed to discuss systematic trading. I've read several other books on system design and I was expecting something of a similar quality. I felt the chapter on backtesting was very much oriented towards the beginner level. But the main reason I was disappointed is that almost half of the book is about the author's software which can generate and backtest trading systems. This was interesting but it seemed much too much like an advertisement for the software which I imagine most readers will not purchase due to its cost. Without the software there is little else of use for those wishing to design and implement their own trading systems. The book is quite short and to make matters worse a full 42 pages of the book simply contained source code that was generated from the software.
   
   Overall if you are new to trading and you are curious about this software and do not want to design your own trading system then the book could be interesting for you. But if you want to design your own system there are many other books that cover this topic in greater detail.

4 comments about Experimental Economics: How We Can Build Better Financial Markets.

1. Miller provides in-depth insight into past financial market events and by doing so sheds light on what might happen today on several fronts. Three examples: His discussion of the 1998 Long-Term Capital Management debacle is relevant for understanding current risks in hedge funds. His analysis of 1980s portfolio insurance should add to concerns about the proliferation of capital guaranteed notes. His take on market circuit breakers, which he describes as regulatory folly, raises the question of what would happen today if these were triggered.
   
   While the book reviews a large and varied body of academic research, focusing heavily on the experimental economics that the author subscribes to, it offers practical conclusions that anybody interested in finance will find worthwhile. As a financial journalist, I found it very useful.
   
   However, because it covers a lot of ground, readers may want to pick and choose what they want to read from the index. The chapter and section headings, while entertaining, are not good guides for this purpose.



2. But that's not my only reason for thinking this a great book.

   Ross M. Miller makes three large claims here. I think he makes good on the first two. I'm not so sure about the third, but even there he makes a case that needs to be made.

   First, he explains that one branch of economics has become an experimental science.

   Second, he says that this variant of economics has produced important results - theorems disclosing how markets might best be structured or restructured, and how the privatization of now-public goods might be accomplished, in ways that could produce enormous productivity gains.

   He more pessimistically claims though, thirdly, that these theorems probably won't produce such gains, because in doing so they would hurt politically powerful interests.

   The idea of "experimental economics" is simple enough: a college professor need only ask his students to co-operate in a simple auction-based game, so that he (and they) can observe the process by which prices come into existence under simplified conditions. Once a body of observations has developed, he and other experimenters can vary the rules and conditions of the game and observe the effect the changes have upon the trading strategies of the players and the game outcomes.

   It was at Harvard University, in the 1940s, that such experiments got their start, in the classroom of Professor Edward Chamberlain. In the decades since, a body of observations has developed that in some respects supports neoclassical economic theory, but that in one crucial respect calls for its modification. Neoclassical theory needs to be modified to account for the possibility of irrational price bubbles. What is of greater policy importance, though, is that post-Chamberlainian experiments have given us a good idea of how markets can be structured to prevent bubble formation.




3. About 1975, when Ross Miller and I were grad students in economics, there was a consensus "economic view of the world." Economists who had to deal with the real world -- policy makers and development types -- didn't really believe it, but the mainstream did. Not only believed it, but took it for granted.

   That's not true today. The consensus is fragmenting. If you want to understand the underpinnings of this intellectual shift, read Ross's book. It's written clearly, even excitingly, with well-chosen examples. And it is written by a real economist, who's trying to understand what's right and what's wrong about how we think about the economic world.




4. A solid, fluid look at experimental economics! In these turbulent times on Wall Street (and really in markets around the world) this proves to be a great source of how we've come to this point, but more importantly, where we can go from here.

No comments about Stock Index Futures (Innovative Economics Textbooks) (Innovative Economics Textbooks).

No comments about 7 Steps to Success Trading Options Online.

5 comments about Wall Street Money Machine, Volume 5: Free Stocks: How to Get the Market to Pay for Your Stocks--FREE!.

1. While pervusing this book at my local favorite book retialer, I couldn't believe the claims made herein. As the saying goes, if it looks too good to be true, it usually is. Not with this book though.
   
   Fortunately, a stock trader, an honest one at that also happened to be reading another copy of this book. As I engaged in a conversation with this man, he indicated that he had been using Wade Cook's method's since 1995 and further indicated that he had made some incredible returns. He went onto explain, that there are some unknown ways to make money in the market that most people, average investors like you and me don't know about.
   
   This same man also had a copy of Monday's IBD and showed me which stocks he was going to use for the FREE STOCKS LOCC SYSTEM that Cook teaches in this book.
   
   So while I cannot offer you any incredible stories at this time, since I have not used the techniques as of yet, I will be in the future. Nonetheless, I was very impressed witht he systems contained in this book. So much so that I decided to buy two other Wade Cook books. I'll let you know how I made out.



2. My local BAMM just got a load of this book as well as other Wade Cook books. Being in management with an uncertain future, I am always looking for extra income opportunities. This program by Wade Cook made the most sense.
   
   I like the idea of selling via Super Covered Calls and then creating income or buying more stocks for free. It's working well for me. As Wade beats to death, "always know your exit and do your homework."
   
   My only word of caution is that there are some promotional pieces inside the book and a toll free number on the inside back cover. I called and was heavily pitched to sign up for a seminar and but other products. When I asked if this was Wade Cook's compnay, the person on the other line simply said, "Who the heck cares about Wade Cook." I can only assume if wasn't and that turned out to be true. I found Wade via his new website at wadecook.org. The customer service people there were much friendlier and even enrolled me in a FREE teleseminar. It was like a breathe of fresh air.
   
   Thanks Wade!



3. This book is complete junk, most of the 4-5 star rating are probably from Wade's cronnies and fraudster. I was even tricked into attending one of his B.S infomerical seminar. Luckily I detect his B.S and left. Stick with the classic from Bill O'neil, Gerald Loeb, and Darvas.



4. This advice can put into early retirement. Wade has been accused of running a get rich scheme and that is partly true. In America, anytime you can come up with a workable strategy that can help you become financially free in less than 4 years, thent hat is quick. Scheme? No, it is just taking advantage on what is available.
   
   And now with stocks like GOOG moving up above the $300 range, it is now possible to get those H-U-G-E premiums that Wade talks about. (This book was written just prior to the Clinton Bear Market in 2000)
   
   Give it a shot.



5. This guy was suited by a lot of personal investors.
   
   Matter of fact you can find the law suits against him on the Federal Trade Commission web site: FTC.GOV In the search box type in 'Wade Cook'. There are about 31 hits.
   
   According to the FTC complaint, WCFC's (Wade Cook Financial Corporation) advertising and promotional materials contain express or implied false claims that Wade Cook had earned and consumers would earn extremely high rates of return - returns of 20% or more per month - on their investments using Cook's trading strategies.
   
   Another words, the man can't walk the talk.
   Fraud

1 comments about American Foreclosure: Everything U Need to Know About Preventing and Buying (American Real Estate).

1. Just picked up a copy. Regardlesss of your personal interests or situation, it's imperative you start reading this book from the beginning. Don't jump in the middle (especially if you are a real estate investor). If you take the time to read from the introduction and move forward, you'll really appreciate the depth of this book. Chapter 5 has every state outlined (over 100 pages of the foreclosure process). If you need help saving your home, it will show you exactly what your options are and how to handle each type of situation. But remember, don't jump ahead. A great buy for both homeowners and investors.