Options: The Essential Guide for Getting Started in Derivatives Trading, Tenth Edition

With over 300,000 copies sold, the new edition of this comprehensive mentoring guide clearly presents all of the essential information needed to learn to trade options. Whereas most options books focus on profit and loss opportunities, this book addresses the issues of hedging market risks in an equity portfolio head on. The author presents the compelling argument that options should not be thought of as risky stand-alone trading vehicles, but offer greater value as a coordinated strategic methodology for managing equity portfolio risks as presented in numerous examples in this book. Divided into four parts, Options reflects a guiding standard of the past nine editions and includes: Crystal clear explanations of the attributes and strategies of calls and puts. A chapter on the short life of an option. This, missing in almost every options book, is a key to understanding options trading. Examples in Part 1 showing different trading strategies on both sides of the trade. The second part of the book is about closing positions; taking profit, exercising, expirations or rolling forward your position, risk analysis, profit calculations, and the impact of volatility. The third part simplifies the complex issues of advanced strategies including the various spreads, combining spreads to successfully hedge other positions and how certain strategies work. Each spread is covered in at least one detailed example. The final part is on evaluating risk. The unquestioned benefits of hedging risk and strategies that are virtually guaranteed to succeed that are generally the domain of the investment giants along with many examples are discussed. The book’s broad coverage makes it an incredibly valuable desk reference to any trader in options. You won’t get explanations like these on the internet. Michael C. Thomsett is a market expert, author, speaker, and coach. His many books include Stock Market Math, Candlestick Charting, The Mathematics of Options, and A Technical Approach to Trend Analysis. Click here to see an interview with the author. https://youtu.be/8bgrgLB3Mx4

Table of Contents:
Part I: The Basics 1 Chapter 1: Calls and Puts: Defining the Field of Play  3 Equity Investments  3 Debt Investments  4 Investments with No Tangible Value: Options  5 Trading Options on Exchanges  7 Calls and Puts  10 The Call Option  13 The Long-Term Call Option  20 Investment Standards for Call Buyers  21 How Call Selling Works  22 The Put Option  26 Option Valuation  32 Picking the Right Stock  37 Intrinsic Value and Time Value  38 Chapter 2: The Life of an Option  45 Expiration and Exercise  45 What is “Clearing”?  46 Bid and Ask  47 Order Entry  48 Types of Orders  49 Who Are the Players?  49 Chapter 3: Opening and Tracking: How It All Works  51 Terms of the Option (Standardized Terms)  51 Strike Price  51 Expiration Date  52 Type of Option  53 Underlying Stock  54 A Note on the Expiration Cycle  54 Opening and Closing Option Trades  56 Using the Daily Options Listings  56 Understanding Option Abbreviations  59 Calculating the Rate of Return for Sellers  61 Chapter 4: Buying Calls: Maximizing the Rosy View  65 Understanding the Limited Life of the Call  66 Judging the Call  70 Call Buying Strategies  76 Strategy 1: Calls for Leverage  76 Strategy 2: Limiting Risks  80 Strategy 3: Planning Future Purchases  81 Strategy 4: Insuring Profits  82 Strategy 5: Premium Buying  84 Strategy 6: Pure Speculation  85 Defining Profit Zones  87 Chapter 5: Buying Puts: The Positive Side of Pessimism  93 The Limited Life of the Put  95 Judging the Put  101 Put Buying Strategies  106 Strategy 1: Gaining Leverage  107 Strategy 2: Limiting Risks  109 Strategy 3: Hedging a Long Position  110 Strategy 4: Pure Speculation  114 Defining Profit Zones  115 Chapter 6: Selling Calls: Conservative and Profitable  119 Selling Uncovered Calls  121 Assessing Uncovered Call Writing Risks  126 A Question of Suitability  127 Selling Covered Calls  129 Assessing Covered Call Writing Risks  133 Calculating the Rate of Return  134 Chapter 7: Selling Puts: The Overlooked Strategy  139 Analyzing Stock Value  143 Evaluating Risks  145 Put Strategies  146 Strategy 1: Producing Income  147 Strategy 2: Using Idle Cash  149 Strategy 3: Buying Stock  150 Strategy 4: Writing a Covered Put on Short Stock  153 Strategy 5: Creating a Tax Put  153 Part II: Closing the Position  157 Chapter 8: Closing Positions: Profit, Exercise, or Roll  159 Defining Possible Outcomes of Closing Options  159 Results for the Buyer  160 Results for the Seller  160 Exercising the Option  162 Timing the Decision  168 Avoiding Exercise  171 Chapter 9: Paper Trading: A Test Run of the Theory  183 The Case for Paper Trading  185 Sites Worth Checking  187 www.Optionsxpress.com  187 marketwatch.com  188 www.investopedia.com  188 Proceeding with a Paper Trading Plan  188 The Dangers of Paper Trading  189 Chapter 10: Calculating the Return: A Complex Aspect to Options  193 Finding a Realistic Method  193 Annualizing Models and Guidelines  195 An Overview of Basic Calculations for Calls  198 You Close the Position and Calculate Option-Based Net Return  199 You Close the Position and Calculate Net Return Based on the Entire Position  199 The Covered Call is Exercised, and You Calculate Option and Stock Profits Separately  200 Any Covered Call Outcome Is Computed Strictly Based on Capital on Deposit  200 Anticipating the Likely Return  201 Chapter 11: The Basics of Risk: What Every Trader Needs to Know  205 Volatility as the Definition of Risk  205 Historical Volatility  207 Implied Volatility  210 Pricing Models  213 Risk and Human Nature  215 Confirmation Bias  216 Anchoring  216 Herding  217 Framing  217 Selective Memory  218 Loss Aversion  218 Chapter 12: Strategies in Volatile Markets: Uncertainty as an Advantage  221 Avoiding 10 Common Mistakes  222 Modifying Your Risk Tolerance  228 The Nature of Market Volatility  229 Market Volatility Risk  230 Options in the Volatile Environment  235 Part III: Advanced Strategies  241 Chapter 13: Combinations and Spreads: Creative Risk Management  243 Overview of Advanced Strategies  246 The Spread  246 The Hedge  251 The Straddle  252 The Strangle  253 Vertical Spread Strategies  255 Bull Spreads  256 Bear Spreads  258 Box Spreads  262 Debit and Credit Spreads  265 Horizontal and Diagonal Spread Strategies  265 Altering Spread Patterns  270 Varying the Number of Options  271 Expanding the Ratio  274 Strategies with Moneyness Close to Underlying Prices  277 Variations on the Butterfly  280 Multi-Leg Option Orders  281 In Conclusion  282 Chapter 14: Hedges and Straddles: More Creativity  283 The Two Types of Hedges  283 Hedging Beyond Coverage  286 Hedging Option Positions  288 Partial Coverage Strategies  292 Straddle Strategies  295 Middle Loss Zones  295 Middle Profit Zones  298 Theory and Practice of Combined Techniques  301 In Conclusion  302 Chapter 15: Options for Specialized Trading: Leveraging the Technical Approach  303 Swing Trading Basics  305 The Setup Signal  308 Testing the Theory  311 A Strategic View of Option for Swing Trading  313 Selection of Stocks Based on Value  313 A Stock’s Price Volatility  314 Price History (Recent and Potential)  315 The Price-To-Earnings (P/E) Ratio of the Stock  315 Fundamental and Technical Tests of the Company and Stock  316 Options Used for Other Trading Strategies  316 Swing- and Day-Trading Advanced Strategies  317 Taking Partial Profits  318 Partial Exercise  319 Add More Option Contracts in Times of Price Momentum  319 In Conclusion  320 Chapter 16: Options on Futures: Leveraging Your Leverage  321 Important Distinctions  322 Regulatory Differences  326 In Conclusion  328 Chapter 17: Synthetic Positions: Tracking the Stock  331 Synthetic Put (Protected Short Sale)  333 Synthetic Long Call (Insurance Put, or Married Put)  334 Synthetic Long Stock  336 Synthetic Short Stock  338 Split Strike Strategy (Bullish)  340 Split Strike Strategy (Bearish)  342 Collars  343 Synthetic Straddles  350 In Conclusion  353 Part IV: Risk Evaluation  355 Chapter 18: Risk: Rules of the Game  357 Identifying the Range of Risk  357 Margin and Collateral Risk  360 Personal Goal Risks  360 Risk of Unavailable Market  361 Risk of Disruption in Trading  362 Brokerage Risks  363 Trading Cost Risk  363 Lost Opportunity Risks  364 Tax Consequence Risk  365 Evaluating Your Risk Tolerance  366 In Conclusion  367 Chapter 19: Taxes: The Wild Card of Options Trading  369 Tax Rules for Options  369 Qualified Covered Calls—Special Rules  373 Looking to the Future  378 In Conclusion  379 Chapter 20: Choosing Stocks: Finding the Right Ingredients  381 Developing a Covered Call Action Plan  385 Selecting Stocks for Call Writing  387 Benefiting from Price Appreciation  388 Analyzing Stocks  390 Fundamental Tests  394 Technical Tests  398 Deciding Which Tests to Apply  400 Applying Analysis to Options—the “Greeks”  401 Beta  402 Delta  402 The Rest of the Greeks  404 Acting on Good Information  406 Putting Your Rules Down on Paper  407 In Conclusion  408 Glossary  409 Index  409

About the Author :
Michael C. Thomsett, Business Writer