5 comments about Options: Essential Concepts and Trading Strategies.

1. This is a good introductory book on options.
   Pros: comprehensive coverage of a subject,fairly easy to read and understand for a beginner in options.
   Cons: the same concepts explained multiple times in different parts of the book. That's probably because chapters are written by different people. For example, look at put-call parity or covered call in the index. It's not a reference book. A short chapter summarizing option trading strategies in one place is clearly missing.



2. This is definitely not an easy reading book. It's essentially a dry college textbook, drier then most Physics textbooks. I am not too sure why people like this book. It's rated fairly high, which was why I initially bought it, but now I regret it. The book is written by multiple authors, therefore some chapters are better then others. But overall it's difficult to read because in some areas, the descriptions are too terse, in others too detailed to the point of confusing. I've owned this book for almost three years and I've never been able to consistently read through it. I will drop it because it's too frustrating. Then I try again a couple of months later and I drop it again. I essentially gave up and decided to go ahead and read Lawrence McMillan's Option book. His book has a better flow because it's the same author throughout, and he does a pretty good job of explaining the subject. This book is only good for probably a reference book, but not for advancing your techniques of Options trading. I am going to try and sell this book instead of using it as a reference.



3. This book is somewhat like 'A Random Walk Down Wallstreet" only applies to option trading, not just Wall Street and goes beyond.To the nit wit that blasted this book, I seriously doubt if he took the time to read it.I also recommend Safety First Investing and Wall Street Money Machine for more option techniques.Good books.



4. Wow, amazing, excellent, insufficient superlatives to describe my feelings - this one and Sheldon Nattenberg's Option Volatility and Pricing and you know more than most of the wall street professionals in my opinion. I found it practical and insightful, particularly with respect to the institutional trading strategies and how the trading floors operate.



5. This book presents a highly readable overview of the subject of options and I would recommend it to anyone. I have not been able to find one book on options which is as wide ranging in its scope (i.e., history, pricing, strategy, individual and institutional investors' approaches, how the trading floor operates, how market makers trade, etc.). The authors have struck a good balance between depth of the subject matter and readability. There are more detailed texts available in the area of strategy (McMillan's _Options as a Strategic Investment_) or pricing (Natenberg's _Option Volatility and Pricing_), but I would especially recommend this book to individual investors interested in options. After reading this book they will have a much stronger footing from which to approach the forementioned other books (which are also excellent, by the way).

   The previous reviewer's comments should be disregarded as I cannot conceive of anyone writing about this subject matter any more clearly (yes, I have read both of Fontanills' books) -- the authors appear to have put much effort into this book judging by its clarity, and one nitwit's daffy comments should not dissuade you!

5 comments about 101 Option Trading Secrets.

1. Having read many options books, this book stands out from the crowd in a way that it takes you straight to the point on trading options. If you are a beginner or have a little bit of experience this is the book to get. If you are an expert or have been trading options for a while there is nothing new to learn apart from a few secrets here and there. I would recommend this book to anyone who is tired of reading books on options that tell you nothing important including a lot of emphasis on what options are and has no real secrets on how to hit home runs in options. Again I have been paper trading options for a while and this is the best book so far out of about 50 that I have had. If you are brand new to options just get the basics elsewhere and get this book once you are ready to trade. You will not be disappointed.



2. OK first of all I have 100's of books, and there are a lot of them I don't like. Only this one made me mad enough to get out of bed and write a review. I probably bought it over a year ago, so I just decided to check it out tonight and I could not believe what I was reading.
   
   The ENTIRE book is like a breif description of a strategy and THATS IT!!!
   Every chapter is 1 to 2 pages!
   
   This book has to be the biggest con I've ever seen.
   
   Ever chapter title leads you to believe that you're in for such a treat, and you are so let down when you find it's 1 to 2 pages long MAX!!!!
   
   DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!!
   
   All I can say is "Ken what were you thinking??"
   
   Could you not at least try and impress us??
   
   Rather than tell us about 101 strategies why don't you go into detail on 3 that would be much more effective, and people wouldn't be so pissed off.



3. This is a worthless marketing material, you can learn more about options in 1 week reading free stuff online. Dan



4. This book was a major disappointment and the author has given nothing new or important to the arena of Options Trading. Given that his highest recommendation is to buy out of money options in hope of a "long shot" as he puts it, I think I will look elsewhere to find better risk / reward set up's and a more strategic plan.
   
   His "secrets" are 1 page of non-sense followed by his unwarranted bragging about how he profited from a trade similar to the strategy he explained.
   
   All in All, this book is a joke and waste of time to anyone serious about trading options.



5. After reading a lot of technical options strategy books, what I like about this book is that it is to the point, does not repeat itself much, and offers good ideas and tips. This book is good for someone that already knows the basics of options. It describes a lot of options strategies and list which ones the author thinks is most powerful. The author lists the advantages and disadvantages of the different strategies. It is up to you to decide which strategy is best suited for your risk-to-reward zone and then do some more research. This book is like a list of 101 tips. If you do not like to read books with chapters that can be summarized into a few paragraphs then this book is for you.

4 comments about The Dynamic Option Selection System: Analyzing Markets and Managing Risk.

1. While Mr. Simons is very well versed in all aspects of market fundamental analysis, this book is of virtually no use to a trader like myself. I bought the book based on my knowledge of his previous writings and the book title. The problem is, as he states in the preface.... the Dynamic Option Selection System is proprietary! So how the options are selected in the books text is unknown to the reader.....thats why I bought the book! If your interested in learning a bit about hedging maybe.......but not trading.



2. Howard Simons' book is a tremendous resource for beginners and market professionals alike. I don't know who this jerk is who panned the book, but he obviously has no idea what he is talking about and ,furthermore, is completely incorrect in his criticisms. All of the equations in this book are correct.



3. I was hoping for better when I obtained the book. I can't believe this guy (the author) went to U.C. Some of the ideas that he presents are interesting and worthwhile to pursue, but he does a poor job of presenting them. The author took bits from each class that he attended at U.C. and forced them into an incoherent story. Many of the equations that he introduces are plain wrong, e.g., (2.7), (2.8), etc. Those that are correct (2.11) are presented in a most obtuse way so that one is left wondering: "what is Simons' talking about". For those who are not technically inclined this is a travesty. How are they supposed to differentiate the baloney from the fact. I understand that this is a "traders' book", but there are many better ones out there! Come on Howard, come on Wiley, you can do better than this.



4. Simons book goes beyond the obvious "how do" on options -- which is exactly where more writers leave off. He is able to take very obtuse institutional topics like behavioral analysis and apply them to intermarket analysis. This is an excellent book for the more sophisticated trader who wants to learn more about options trading in all markets, including futures. Great read and well worth the price.

4 comments about The Trader's Guide to Equity Spreads: Increase Returns and Lower Risk with Option Strategies.

1. I ordered this book to help me learn more about different Options trading possibilities.
   
   It is very informative and well written. It has very good examples of the different option set-ups.



2. This is a reference book, an encyclopedia of options strategies. It's not a book you are likely to read cover-to-cover given its repetitive nature from chapter-to-chapter. But that's not to say it isn't useful. It does have an introduction chapter that taught me the Black-Scholes options pricing model and explains the concepts of volatility and implied volatility. It also points out how changes in volatility are likely to affect each strategy presented. The fine points of naming each strategy are explained...
   
   Condor vs. Iron Condors
   Butterfly vs. Iron Butterfly
   Standard Condors vs. Albatross spreads
   etc.
   
   To get started in options trading, you'll likely want to pick up an introduction book that explains some of the more common strategies and how to pick stocks, how to choose strike prices and expirations months, and how to get in and out of trades while minimizing risk.



3. This book does a good job in laying out the facts about all of the various spreads available. However, I found it low on insight and strategy. There are simply better books out there.
   
   I would expect someone who was going to write a book on options (an expert) to offer more insight and strategy. The title of the book seems to indicate that this is what the book provides, but I am finding it useful as only a reference guide. How the aspects of each type of spread is disseminated through the individual chapters was also a bit irritating, in that it seemed repetitive and divided into sections that gave partial information without a complete correlation of ideas.
   
   This book is written in a style that most intermediate to advanced traders will understand, and probably beginners want to avoid. But at the same time, those with a better understanding need a more insightful author, such as Lawrence McMillan's Options as a Strategic Investment. Also a good book which summarizes most all of the option strategies is Guy Cohen's Bible of Option Strategies, which is a similar book to this but in a better format. I am not saying to not buy this book, because I find you have to have several books on options trading and cross reference the information in each one. Add this book to your collection, and use it as a reference guide.



4. I have traded options on stocks for over 14 years. Over that time I have bought many books on options and their trading.
   
   This is the first book I have found that focuses on option trading for traders. The book presumes the reader is familiar with options and trading options. The book concentrates on being a guide to the multiples strategies which can be used in trading options.
   
   Most books on trading options seem merely to layout a specific trading scheme, such as an iron butterfly spread. This book provides insight into the situation where a trading strategy is appropriate. This also provides the perceptive reader insight into when a strategy is inappropriate.

No comments about Exotic Options: The State of the Art.

1 comments about The Handbook of Exotic Options: Instruments, Analysis, and Application.

1. Dr. Nelken has compiled a series of articles
   by a variety of authors dealing with particularly
   diverse aspects of exotic options.

   Although some of the papers contain useful
   information, the book does not deserve to
   be called a "handbook": it is more like a
   loose compilation, thus making it useless
   as a reference.

   I ordered the book in 1998 at my local
   bookstore and felt cheated after the
   first browsing. The extra star is there
   to praise the occasional pearl of wisdom
   you will encounter while reading through
   all 15 chapters.

   Finally, the cover advertises with
   "valuable software included", referring
   to a demo (!) of EXOTICOP (c). I strongly
   disagree: the program is nothing more
   than a black-scholes type exotics pricer
   with a primitive interface, barely touching
   the level of an undergraduate paper.
   To add insult to injury, some of the
   input parameters are frozen in the
   demo version.

   To put it in dealer's phraseology, this
   book is a big yours.

1 comments about An Employee's Guide to Stock Options.

1. The key messages are presented in easy to read jargon, but the figures are very confusing. Better than nothing, but could be better.

5 comments about Winning in the Options Market: A Streetwise Trader Shows You How to Outsmart the Pros.

1. This book is somewhat out of date. However, it has a great deal of good strategy advice on how to evaluate option positions for risk and for reward. The author provides a straightforward and clear analysis. I recommend it highly. The strategies he proposes are not for small investors interested in playing the options market with a couple of thousand dollars. To achieve adequate diversification, and minimize the impact of transaction costs, one needs to invest a minimum of 30K and better 50K-100K in one of these hedges.
   Read this book and you will learn a great deal about the mathematics of risk and reward.



2. This so-called options-expert says that options have a different value for different investors. Well, that's simply not true, it doesn't matter whether you buy an option for speculative reasons, or write it to make some extra return, you can calculate the optionprice with the Black and Scholes fomula.
   The author correctly states that you should buy options that are undervalued, but his buying criteria don't make any sense.
   This book contains many other errors, and with this book you will definitely not outsmart the pros, as the title suggests.



3. I started to understand things better about the why and the why not of options.Definitely recommend it to beginners.



4. Not the worst book I have read on investments, but certainly not the best. The author spends much of the book explaining why he believes standard option trading techniques are doomed to fail in the long term, but his rationale are at best fuzzy. He does do a decent job of outlining his twist on covered call writing and portfolio hedging, but does a poor job of backing up his claims; uses a lot of statements like 'should create a greater return' than standard methods. Should? I'd like to see a bit more testing than just his gut feel. Overall, a quick read, lots of Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets, and some potentially useful ideas, but be prepared to work out a lot of it on your own.



5. I found this book insighful and informative for both the novice and experienced trader. I only failed to give it 5 stars because there appear to be a few errors in the spreadsheet code included in the appendices. If anyone has encountered the same problems I would appreciate hearing from them.

1 comments about Margin Trading from A to Z: A Complete Guide to Borrowing, Investing and Regulation (Wiley Trading).

1. The author does a good job in this book of showing how margin works. He does this with specific scenarios showing what your account looks like after taking a stock position on margin. The book breaks down what your equity market value is after a purchase and what your debit and equity balance looks like. You will also see how these change with the fluctuation of the market value of your equity. The book shows what the minimum equity requirement is to maintain a position on margin before you get a margin call. The book explains the anatomy of how a short sale works in a margin account. He discusses the minimum cash requirement for pattern day trading ($25,000) and how you can use the maximum amount of margin to day trade by always getting out of your positions on the same day you purchase an equity. The book has an outstanding chapter on options, really explaining how they work along with their margin requirements for trading them. There is also a chapter on what is called a portfolio margin account, which allows for much more leverage than the traditional 50% margin account requirement. This type of account adjusts margin based on risk, you can hedge your positions by holding put or call options that insure your holdings and minimize your risk. Doing this inside a portfolio margin account allows you to 10 times leverage of more due to the low risk position. (However this type of account has large capital requirements of $100,000 or more). This book is for beginners, and I would recommend reading it if you want a better understanding of how margin works. If you plan on being a day trader you will need a margin account to be able to trade enough size to profit daily.

No comments about Trading S&P Futures & Options: A Survival Manual & Study Guide.