Option

a book which seems quite interesting

If you want to learn how to read the markets BUY THIS BOOK! I have been in the financial markets since '93 and have read dozens of books on technical analysis; I just wish this one was out ten years ago- because I would have saved myself a ton of time.

This book is so simple to understand yet extremely insightful, I call it the "manual to the markets", because its methodologies are explained in detail and applicable to ALL markets. I trade currencies and now use a lot of Barbara's techniques. My favorite chapter is chapter 11 "Transforming Channels into Forecasts".

If you are like me and need to know what the market is trying to tell you then this book is for you. A lot of books out there are heavy on math and light on descriptive illustration this one is the opposite, I cannot stress how easy this book is to digest...If you're a veteran or a newbie to the markets you'll be quite pleased with this one.

Whatever one thinks of technical analysis, even a died-in-the-wool fundamental and value investor trembles at the thought of going against the famous "head-and-shoulders" pattern. This book will give you an excellent background in the basics without overwhelming you with a lot of technical detail. The book discusses everything from moving averages and Bollinger Bands to oscillators such as relative strength, MACD (moving average convergence-divergence), ROC (rate of change), the parabolic indicator, and Pring's own proprietary KST indicator, and so on. Also, the included CD contains a four-hour video presentation on the most important topics. Pring says in the introduction that, in contrast to most CDs in books, which are throw-aways, the CD is actually the most important thing and the book is the "throw-away." In any case, there is a lot of value and information here between the book and the CD and overall this is a fine book to get you to the next level in terms of your trading expertise.

This book is hard to describe. It is such a good book and if you want a book that will make you think this is the one for you. It takes place in the future, it is not sci-fi or anything like that, it just simply shows what the future might be like. In a way it is disturbing, the author makes you look at yourself and think if you would ever do that. READ THIS BOOK! It is worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was very pleased with the material contained in this book. Although I am a beginner in the natural gas trading field, I found Sturm's book both easy to understand yet challenging in its scope. A great deal of emphasis is placed upon various hedging techniques and many helpful diagrams are included to portray the trading flow. Overall a very unique and insightful book for beginners and for those with years of experience in trading natural gas.

Joe Ross has written the best strategy guide for trading options I have ever seen. This book shows you how to blend the best features of option trading together with the best of futures trading. The book is a classic, and with each reading, I gained more and more understanding of how the markets really work, and how to take advantage of combining options and futures.

If you are an option trader, you need the understanding of the underlying futures as presented by Joe. If you are a futures trader, Joe shows you the simple and most straightforward way to bolster your futures trading by adding to it the world of options.

To say that this book is outstanding is to vastly underrate its contents. A bargain at any price and worth far more than its cost.

I work in the business and I have read and struggled through a lot of books on options and other derivatives. This one stands out as a true gem. It is practical, yet thorough. It is accessible to the interested layman, but it doesn't condescend or skimp on key concepts. The questions at the end of each chapter allow you to solidify the concepts explained in the chapters without spending your whole weekend on them. The software that comes with it lets you play with the concepts in real time until you grasp them intuitively, not just theoretically: concepts such as the "greeks"--delta, gamma, theta, and vega, hedging, the relationship between options and the underlying instruments, and so on. Don't be misled by the reasonable price. (Books in this genre usually start at over $50.) You can slog through a lot of options books and log a lot of hours, but I'll be you get more out of this per minute invested than any other book on options.

Gerald Ashley's book is a trenchant analysis of many issues associated with the stock market. Calling on his own extensive experience and utilizing a variety of keen arguments, he clearly explains the failure of technical analysis, the appeal of behavioral finance, and a host of other matters. A very satisfying read.

As a professional personal coach, I think that health-related goals, like losing weight or eating a more healthy diet, are the toughest goals to reach. Not only do our habits in this area track in deep grooves, but our genes often conspire against us. The daily dose of junk food advertising that constantly bombards us doesn't help either. In order to win the fight, we need a good model to work from. Dr. Casello gives us a great one. Her six stages of personal power show us which stage we typically fall into and what we can do to start achieving our goals. The book gives us insight on how we relate to food and where our power lies -- power that holds us back, or power that moves us forward. I recommend this book to all my clients who want to lose weight or be more healthy. Not surprisingly, it helps with reaching goals in other areas, too.

Brian J. Hall is an Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School. This article was published in the March-April 2000 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

In the 'old' days, executives got paid in cash, and stock options were just a footnote. Now the reverse is true, stock options grants have come to dominate the pay of top executives. Hall starts the article with a 'short course on options and their valuations' since stock options are often misunderstood. He discusses the main goal in granting stock options: "to tie pay to performance - to ensure that executives profit when their companies prosper and suffer when they flounder." But if pay is truly to be linked to performance, there also have to penalties for poor performance. Although the widely-held perception is that options have unlimited upside but no downside risk Hall claims that this is not true: "In fact, options have even greater downside risk than stock. ... Far from eliminating penalties, options actually amplify them." He uses several examples to prove and explain his point. So how can you effectively use options? Hall claims that compensation needs to be tied to a performance measure that looks forward rather than backward. And he believes that stock options are the ultimate forward-looking incentive plan: "they measure future cash flows, and, through the use of vesting, they measure them in the future as well as in the present." Hall divides options plans up into three types. (1) Fixed value plans: Executives receive options of a predetermined value every year over the life of the plan. (2) Fixed number plans: Executives received a predetermined number of options over the plan period. (3) Megagrant plans: Both the number of options and the exercise price are fixed, making them the most highly leveraged type of grant. The advantages and disadvantages of each type are discussed in detail, plus there is a pay-example comparing the three plans. Time and time again, Hall expresses his concern about the lack of knowledge about stock options. Therefore, thousands of companies choose the wrong stock option plan. "Only by building a clear understanding of how options work ... will a company be able to ensure that its option program is actually accomplishing its goals."

Yes, I like this article into the strange world of stock options. The author debunks widely-held myths about stock options, whereby he uses simple examples, figures and tables to explain the different available stock option plans. This article is a great introductory article for people unfamiliar with stock options. It is written in very simple business US-English, so all of us can now understand how effective stock options can be as an incentive tool.