2024 the best option review

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A practical guide to the math behind options and how that knowledge can improve your trading performance

No book on options can guarantee success, but if a trader understands and utilizes option math effectively, good things are going to happen. The idea behind Options Math for Traders + Website is to help retail option traders understand some of the basic tenants and enduring relationships of options, and option math, that professional and institutional traders rely on every day. This book skillfully highlights those strategies that are inherently superior from an option math point of view and explains what drives that superiority while also examining why some strategies are inherently inferior.

The material is explained without complex equations or technical jargon. The goal is to give you a solid conceptual foundation of options behavior so you can make more informed decisions when choosing an option strategy for your market outlook. Topics covered include the volatility premium, because over time, options will cost more than they are ultimately worth; skew, wherein far out of the money put options may seem cheap from an absolute term, but are very expensive in relative terms; and the acceleration in option price erosion. The book also has a companion Website, which includes links to those sites that can scan for the best strategies discussed in the book.

Explains, in a non-technical manner, the mathematical properties of options so that traders can better select the right options strategy for their market outlookCompanion Website contains timely tools that allow you to continue to learn in a hands-on fashion long after closing the bookWritten by top options expert Scott Nations

Most independent traders have an imperfect understanding of the math behind options pricing. With Options Math for Traders + Website as your guide, you'll gain valuable lessons in this area and discover how this information can improve your trading performance.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley; 1st edition (October 30, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1118164377
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1118164372
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.3 x 0.9 x 9.3 inches
Reviewer: CRAIG F
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Evaluate your Best Options with this Book
Review: SUMMARY: Concise enough for novices, and beneficial for intermediate traders, coupled with a helpful website, highlighting trades that "get the math working for you". Each chapter concludes with a helpful"Takeaways" section that summarizes key points from the chapter, enabling quick review or future reference. I find myself referring to the latter portion of the book frequently and recommend it highly.DETAILS: I first heard of the author on CNBC's "Options Action", a show that I used to watch primarily to understand option trade structures and the rationale behind them, rather than for specific trades to follow. Sure, this book will cover some of the basics that can be found on the web or is covered in other texts -- Part 1 is CALLED "The Basics", with four chapters that can be skipped if you're not an options newbie.The book gets more interesting in Part 2 ("The Phenomena"), which covers volatility, skew, time decay, and bid/ask spread, and how they impact option pricing. Understanding these lays the basis for the third section of the book and the rationale for being on a certain side of the trades. It is worth rereading Part 2 (even if you already understand these attributes) to have a solid grounding in the factors that will affect your option positions.In the third and final section, the book goes on to cover simple option structures from covered calls and protective puts to spreads (both calendar and vertical) and risk reversals (long call/short put structures), how the phenomena (Part 2, remember?) influence the trade, and how to adjust the trade when things don't go as smoothly as planned (which you'll discover needs to be done more often than not). The end-of-chapter "Takeaways" that summarize key points are very helpful to determine whether a chapter is worth (re)reading. When I pick up the book, this is where I first look to get a refresher on adjusting trades or phenomena such as skew.The URL provided in the book for the website takes you to another URL which is the "Market Tools" section of LiveVol. The website is VERY helpful in helping you visualize skew, comparing theoretical to bid/ask quotes, highlighting the most active option strikes, and more. Definitely load the website in your browser as you refer back to the book, and use it to help evaluate prospective trades. I'd rate the website Five Stars even if you somehow find the book no longer useful (again, I find it an excellent quick reference even after understanding it).

Reviewer: Ulmus
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Don't be a player Own the Casino!
Review: `Options Math' is really a misnomer, as the book has little to do with math and much to do with strategy. When should you use simple buys and sells of calls and puts? When should you use combinations such as calendar spreads, vertical put spreads and risk reversals? Such trade strategies are well documented but how they work and when, have not been well covered elsewhere. There are numerous strategies such as iron condors etc. but what Scott Nations does is pick the five most useful. He then explains why they work and how to use them along with insightful examples.The book is divided into three parts:* The Basics* The Phenomena* The TradesThe Basics is just an introduction. If you know something about hockey-stick gain/price charts and the meaning of the Greeks, you do not need to read this part. The Phenomena covers the way that options behave with time, volatility and underlying price. This information is very practical.There is a lot of discussion about volatility but there does seem to be an omission. Volatility is just the predicted forward standard deviation for one year. Volatility is much more important to brokers because this is the parameter that links all the option prices together. (Assuming you know the underlying stock price, option strike price, time to expiration and risk-free interest rate.) As a broker, if you have a few bid/asks, you can price the rest! For the retail investor, you are just interested in the best deal on one or two options.The Trades is the section that gets this book its stars. Just five strategies are discussed. But, these are the most useful and they are quite straightforward. The Risk Reversal and Calendar Spread are nicely explained. There is good discussion about decay and the impact of implied volatility. Not mentioned is that if these trades work well in bullish market, the calls can be spread by selling a higher priced call to lock in profits.The free OptionsMath software is under-impressive. Better is an Excel spreadsheet. You can even get Black-Scholes models for Excel, free online! Also for a good insight into the real world of options, a trading -platform such as TD ThinkOrSwim can provide insightful real time analysis.Other books, such as Sheldon Natenberg's, Option Volatility and Pricing and Michael Durbin's, All About Derivatives have decent basic material but I found Options Math to be a lot more entertaining and readable. At the end of each chapter is a summary section called Takeaways. These are really useful because you can check if you have grasped main points.There are some disappointments. The charts are not clear, when two variables are plotted. Using dashed rather than shaded lines would be clearer. There are some silly spelling errors and a column in one table is mislabeled. A glossary and list of references would be helpful. Adding this stuff to the website might be a good idea.

Reviewer: Curmudgeon
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Detailed explanation of options pricing and investment
Review: This is a very detailed book on options pricing and price action. The last chapters deal with types of trades.At times the book is pretty deep reading, but many of the options mysteries I didn't understand are explained.So, buy this book if you really want to understand the nitty gritty of options pricing. Or you can skip the dry reading and get excellent advice on trading.

Reviewer: Karen F. Zaverton
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Book!
Review: My husband loves this book. Would highly recommend it. Easy to read and to understand. Great ideas for trading options. Explains everything!

Reviewer: Arch
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Disappointed
Review: I'm a big fan of the show Fast Money on CNBC so I was excited to buy this book even though I thought the price was high. I did not gain the practical knowledge I was hoping for to make more complex option transactions. I thought parts of the book were difficult to follow and the examples a bit redundant. For the record I have traded simple call/put transactions for a number of years.

Reviewer: NC Mountains
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Meat and Potatoes!
Review: Good stuff. A little heavy on the theory (formulae I'll never use) but some good practical strategies.This book is a terrific value. Have made many times the price on the first trade or two. A good investment in your trading expertise, can't be compared to buying a novel on the NYT best seller list.Scott, when does Volume 2 come out?

Reviewer: M. Barnett
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Well written
Review: Understandable review of how options work and the factors that influence price. More to the point than McMillan and easier to read because it does not attempt to cover every aspect of options. Does cover the most used strategies such as short puts, covered calls, spreads and risk reversals.

Reviewer: Sydbear
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Option math
Review: It's an ok book but most of the same stuff as all the other option books with different terminology. If it was $19 I wouldn't have such buyers remorse