Options Education - Got a Website / Book / PDF You Like? Post It Up

I signed out another options book from my local library. The title is "The Options Edge". Ironically enough, there are TWO separate books about options which use the EXACT same title (how do they get away with it?). The one I'm reading now is the one published by Wiley. It's much better than I thought, and gets right into the mathematical details (which I like).

I'm still early in the book, and it's already getting into the full understanding of Phi. I'll include an example here. So far, no complaints.

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Alright, I found this oldie at the local library. Though I'm not fully sure if this one should be avoided at all costs (I'm still reading early into it), lol.

The 100% Return Options Trading Strategy

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Well if that doesn't already sound suspect... apparently it's possible you can double your money each year by selling what appears to be iron-condors on OEX.

And how exactly does this give such great returns? Simple, you just look for a 'signal' on live TV (or a subscription service) to see when the upticks or downticks tell you that someone on wall street is using a SELL or a BUY program, and you ride the wave. :sneaky:

Really simple... and you have the Welles-Wilder & Stochastics to back you up.

In any case, since I'm still reading the book, here's some comments on Amazon from those who have. They don't seem to be too positive. Haha!

On p. 96-104 the author attempts to give spreadsheet formulas to compute stochastics, Welles Wilder RSI, and two other indicators he recommends. The formulas are outright wrong for the Stochastics %K-%D signal. Had someone proofread or even tried to recreate these in Excel, it would be blatantly obvious they are wrong. Upon contacting the author at his email address, he suggested that I pay him to receive the full version of the spreadsheet for several hundred dollars, rather than giving me the correction to the wrong information in his book. Also, on p. 78, the computations of the "safe" strike prices are based on erroneous data. I compared historic data from the time frame he references and it looks like he omitted data from August 1996 and just relabeled all of the rows so that the data from Nov-94 through Aug-96 is actually for Dec-94 through Jul-96. The Mar-97 MAX data appears suspect, being 10.33 rather than 10.25. The Aug-97 data for MAX and MIN appears suspect, being 43.63 and 1.59, rather than 42.72 and 26.50, respectively. It also appears that he is using the wrong standard deviation function to compute sigma. You can't duplicate his numbers in the C2sig13 and P2sig13 columns with the data he provided in the table in Figure 5.1.
His latest newsletter shows that the "safe" strike price for the February 2000 short puts was 720, but if you followed the instructions in his book, you would have sold the Feb 745 puts short and been out 22 points per contract on naked puts, or you would have lost your entire spread when the market dumped from 752.19 to 728.52 on options expiration Friday in February. His system for mitigating losses would not have worked either because when the market broached 745 that day, you would have paid about 6 points to close out a losing spread that you may only have received 1-2 points to open. These spreads he advocates are based on some very fast and loose statistical claims and not very thoroughly explained at all. Very dangerous!
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Mr. Schiller has a PhD, but his book does not reflect much quality control went into its composition. There are missing figures, but yet referenced in the text. The book lacks an index. Several words are abbreviated, but there is no apparent explanation for them. I get the feeling this book went from first draft directly to publication. The hefty price is not justified. I am glad I only borrowed it from a library. The one purpose of the book seems to be to promote Excel spreadsheets he has created to track the OEX; and their prices are equally inflated. Why must you, Mr. Schiller, sell them from Spain? Isn't trading the OEX sufficiently profitable by itself?
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And this guy seems pretty short yet blunt:

Non-conventional terminology. Worst book, on options, I've ever read
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:strong:
 
The_Krakenite said:
Alright, I found this oldie at the local library. Though I'm not fully sure if this one should be avoided at all costs (I'm still reading early into it), lol.

The 100% Return Options Trading Strategy

View attachment 278438

Well if that doesn't already sound suspect... apparently it's possible you can double your money each year by selling what appears to be iron-condors on OEX.

And how exactly does this give such great returns? Simple, you just look for a 'signal' on live TV (or a subscription service) to see when the upticks or downticks tell you that someone on wall street is using a SELL or a BUY program, and you ride the wave. :sneaky:

Really simple... and you have the Welles-Wilder & Stochastics to back you up.

In any case, since I'm still reading the book, here's some comments on Amazon from those who have. They don't seem to be too positive. Haha!





And this guy seems pretty short yet blunt:

:strong:
More...
Only the exceptionally fantastic books please.
For those, just the amazon link is sufficient. Thanks
Maybe you should start the thread- Krakenites Reading Room?
 
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treeman said:
To reduce the spread and increase liquidity, go after stocks of high trading volumes. Usually leaders in their sector - which is what you want to trade anyhow.

from there, I go 3-9 months out. I try to stick to 6+. For example, I’m looking for q4 expirations right now.

I select oom calls, with roughly a 35 delta. Never put on more than 1% of your stack, and even then, only if you’re holding 10ish tickers.

be quick to sell your call when losing (e.g. below 20ema, or whatever your stop methods are).

when implied volatility is high historically, I write puts(one month out-weeklies as the IV os always higher) in addition to my calls below my stop out level to deal with the impending vol crush. If it goes below that, I’m out completely. Best of luck trading.
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https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/swing-trading-buying-call-options.365870/#post-5566611
 
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