Option

Read the author's biography, and you know you are dealing with someone who has been there, done that. Wynne takes us into the covert world of military special operations. He asks the question: What does a country do with highly trained operators in the absence of war?

Jonny Maxwell was considered the best. But Jonny had a problem - he liked to rape women. So Jonny goes to jail and breaks out, because that is what he was trained to do.

They send Jonny's partner, Dale Miller, to bring Jonny in, failing that to take Jonny out. This is an edge of your seat manhunt. A thriller that suggests SWAT teams and SOG Marshal units are not up to the task when confronting highly trained and highly organized people.

It is so refreshing to read a book where the author gets the guns and the action right. Wynne obviously knows what certain kinds of weapons are capable of and more importantly what they can't do. He also understands small unit and single man actions.

I enjoyed this book. It is a great find to discover another writer who works in this genre and knows what he is talking about.

I've read truckloads of thrillers. Most of them are pretty standard fare and follow a basic formula. The end is almost never in doubt. But it's not about the destination, it's about the journey and Marcus Wynne takes the reader on a very suspenseful and exciting one with No Other Option.

Some may say that the characters lack significant depth and they would be right. But let's face it, this isn't Pulitzer winning material. If that's what your looking for look elsewhere. For me, the characters are as fleshed out as they need to be.

I rank Mr. Wynne right up there with my favorites in this genre, most notably Stephen Hunter. I can't wait to read Warrior in the Shadows.

If your an operator, then you can understand.

This book is good in that it covers all the basic mechanics of stock options -- Incentive and Non-Qualified, and ESPP plans. However, this basic information can easily be found on the web or from your employer.

What is sadly lacking from this book is advice on strategy on how to manage options, e.g., ideas on when to exercise and sell. Because of this, the book is quite disappointing to me and not very useful.

Reading this book may not provide you with all the answers, but it will help you ask all the right questions of your CPA.

A few hours spent reading this title will give you a solid understanding of the fundamentals of options: stock, options, grants, exercise, strike price, employee stock purchase plans, AMT, and so on. More importantly, it will give you a good understanding of the complex tax issues that options may expose you to. And most importantly, it will make very clear the questions you need to ask in interviewing a prospective accountant, and in working with an accountant or financial planner.

The average reader is not likely to garner enough information to fully plan their option liquidation by themselves (multiyear strategies for minimizing AMT, for example, are beyond the scope of this book), but at least you'll know what sorts of things your accountant should be working out for you.

I bought this book after checking out the reviews on Bob Pastorie's book on Stock Options and after visiting the author's web site. I wanted a thorough understanding of stock awards, stock options, and option strategies.

I'm glad I bought this book. It's packed with facts and how to-do-it information that takes the mystery out of stock options and pre-IPO stock.

This is a complicated subject and the book does justice to everything. I especially liked the first couple of chapters that reviews the basics of taxes and terminology before launching into stock awards and stock options. Despite plenty of examples and clearly written material, this is not a book that you'll read once, and retain everything. The IRS has made sure of that. I will have it close by to refer to. Besides the book, the author's web site is very helpful. He promptly responded to my specific questions. Wish I could say that about others!

There's a great potential to make some serious and costly mistakes when it comes to stock options. Yes, you'll need help from lawyers and tax professionals, but without this book, you won't understand anything they're talking about. In fact, I think you'll spend more than the cost of the book in legal and professional fees if time has to be taken out to educate you about the basics.

I read the book at light speed the first time around. I initially thought that things were confusing and unorganized. I realized that this was a mistake on my part. The subject matter is complex, especially on the various kinds of options and when they vest.

I read the book a second time to get prepared to see my lawyer, tax, and estate planner. The book gave me the knowledge to fashion some specific strategies on my stock grant and also how to exercise my options. The benefits of the book's organization have now become more obvious to me. Is there a negative aspect of the book? Sure. It didn't get into estate planning or suggest ways of sheltering the potential wealth that could accrue from stock and options from firms going to an IPO. I also wish it would have talked more from the perspective of a firm getting ready to do an IPO, although there were some examples of this. I was also only interested in Nonqualified Options and not the exhaustive coverage on Incentive Stock Options that employees usually receive. However, this was no reason to give it less than 5 stars. I think the estate planning aspect is a great subject for Mr. Thomas' next book or something that the web can handle.

Bottom line here: the book is well worth the price and your time. Read it once, twice, and keep it handy. You'll definitely refer to it today and in the years ahead.

This book is one of the best trading books ever published. It provides a very systematic and scientific approach of evaluating entry and exit techniques across a diversified futures portfolio. It presents by far the most rigorous and sound methodology of evaluating trading system robustness. The section on the use of statistical analysis to evaluate model validity is easily worth the price of the book.

The authors did an excellent job defining the correct way of optimizing system parameters. The part on exit techniques is also impressive. It contains a methodology on the development of exit strategies and presents many exit techniques.

Overall, the book is packed with a wealth of information. Every time I re-read a chapter I find a new gem. I strongly recommend this book to all mechanical system traders, especially those trading diversified commodity portfolios.

Most books on trading assume either that the reader never got to college, or else that they never left. This one, however, is different, rapidly bringing the technical but non-specialist reader up to speed in the principled construction of automated trading engines.

If you have a reasonably numerate background, perhaps with some software development experience, and have found yourself drawn to the concept of constructing your own mechanical trading system, you owe it to yourself to read this text. Quite simply, it is superb. The authors begin by describing the core components of a sound system, including the application of statistical inference and the selection of appropriate sample sets for back-testing. They then go on to provide a set of normalised comparisons of various trading 'rules' for entry and exit (e.g., breakouts, MAVs, oscillators, neural net predictors, etc.) together with discussion of optimisation systems (such as simulated annealing and genetic refinement). The actual results of some 'respectable' rulesets you may find rather shocking! And if you are only dimly aware of what genetic algorithms can offer the modern trader, you should buy this book for that reason alone.

The style of the text is clear and unstuffy, with chapters of readable length and well-structured content. The reader who wants to learn more will find this book an ideal jumping off point, since many references to the literature are provided, but an excessive technical background is not assumed, and the work is for the most part self-contained.

The only minor issues are 1) the title is a somewhat misleading; you will not find an A-Z list of trading strategies here, but rather a more select discussion of the techniques (and the validity of certain *classes* of strategy) involved in building viable automated trading systems; and 2) there is some ugleeee typesetting of mathematical formulae in Fortran (!). However, neither points really count for more than nitpicking in contrast to the value of the text overall.

In summary, there is real content here - described and justified, if you are an engineer like me, through the sort of scientific analysis and rigour that creates more excitement than a million words of hype. Fed up with TradeStation? Writing your own system in C++? In need of a bit of inspiration and guidance? If this sounds familiar, you want this book, believe me.

IMHO, it's a classic. Buy it.

Great book if you are interested in writing system code. Good backgound about ideas that may work and those that do not. The most valuable part of the book is the companion CD that is availabe. The software on the CD allows for testing of portfolio systems (something not really possible with most retail charting/trading software). Source code is fully revealed allowing for as much customization as one would like.

I just finished "Ladies with Options" by Cynthia Hartwick. This is the story of a group of delightfully eccentric women who change much more than their finances when they begin an investment club. As their interests change from small town club meetings to global finances, their comic adventures and misadventures are described by the narrator with a mixture of concern, consternation, and always, humor. The pace is fast, the mood hilarious, and you can't put the book down. Take this with you on vacation, and you won't care about delayed flights.

Imagine yourself a middle-aged housewife of a nondescript town in Minnesota. Imagine yourself being 14.5 million dollars richer.

"Ladies with Options" is a humerous and well-written story of a group of 4 houswifes, 2 librarians, and one grad student turning $ into a fortune enough to rival Bill Gates' on the stock market. Told from the perspective of their lawyer, and daughter of one of the housewifes, the story is both unbelievable and funny.

What would you do if all of the sudden you had a couple extra million to spend at leisure? That's what the book's about, of course. The book is just so very fun to read, with a touch of romance and characters that seem real. The escapades of these ladies are hillarious. You'll be amazed at what a bunch of old ladies can do when they put their minds to it.

I recommend this book to everyone. It's positively delightful, and you won't regret reading it.

I'm the type of reader that has to get hooked within the first ten pages, or forget it. I picked up this book in the airport as a "time-killer", but found myself turning page after page. Cynthia Hartwick's writing is superb! I read this book in two days and lent it to a girlfriend. Definitely get it!!

I am planning an unorthodox "planned-elopement-destination-wedding" to Las Vegas. When I tell people that I'm eloping, but not in the traditional sense of the word, I often cite this book to back up my view that the word "elope" has evolved over the years. With every page I found myself saying "Exactly!" "That's how I feel!". I related to the book more than any bridal magazine or website out there. Highly recommended!

I loved this book until I tried to call some of the companies listed. Quite a few of the numbers listed were inaccurate. I realize that vendors do change their numbers, but in these cases the numbers were wrong by only one or two digits. Fortunately, most of the people answering these numbers knew about it and gave me the correct number.

My fiancee & I became engaged in July '02 - we'd been living together and buying a home was a bigger priority than getting married. We finally decided it was time to tie the knot, but didn't want to spend a ton of money on a wedding we both didn't want.

I ordered "Let's Elope" and found that our options were limitless. From cruises, to Vegas, to Disney World, the options were endless - this book provided many resources in terms of finding a location, researching our options within a location, and even ways to make the ceremony personal! A word of caution: this book is not a wedding planner, it is a resource guide. If you want a wedding planner, go search for Martha Stewart. But if eloping is on your mind and you are considering it as an option - definately invest in this book. We did, and have no regrets...we had FUN!

I cannot believe the other reviews. Have any of you ever traded before? This has to be one of the worst trading books I've ever read. I've read hundreds and have an extensive library, as well as over 15 years trading experience.

He gives many ideas and suggestions of how to enter and exit trades based on SMR Charts, but nothing concrete because there are so many variations you could "try". Basically trade with the trend and "try" to buy a pullback. Any other book on swing trading would be better and more useful. This is just swing trading using SMR Charts and their indicators, though you can use your own similar indicators. This book is very expensive for something you can get out of any swing trading book, which would give you a lot more value and insight for your money. On money management, same thing, vague - not much more value than telling someone "don't trade too heavy" and to "go with your best guess".

You might notice that there is not one single endorsement from anyone on the back of the book. With someone described as a "top notch sought after money manager" and a "big time trader" doesn't it make you wonder why? Don't waste your money.

I have never traded Futures but bought this book for educational purposes. I think this is the best book on trading I've ever read. Stresses the psychological pitfalls a new trader will encounter when starting, then moves on to explain his approach to trading which involves simple moving averages and momentum techniques. A hard book to put down as the author reveals the fascinating world of trading the Futures Markets with his own unique approach to Momentum which basically involves trading the rallies and sell-offs of an established trend. The honest tone of this book sets it apart from so much of the trash that is being peddled by other writers (gurus). If you only buy one book on trading, make this the one.

Mr.Goslin does a phenomenal job of exposing what it takes to trade futures. His nononsense approach and his clear descriptions of how to trade are wonderful.

More importantly he doesn't over explain how to go about trading futures. He points out how simple the use of moving averages and momentum plays are enough to trade futures and matter of factly asks why would you need anything else.

This book is far superior than my book "Futures For Small Speculators" which focuses 100% on the psychological. I will definitely take pointers from Mr.Goslin in the second edition and really put out my own trading experiences and styles into it.

Great job Mr.Goslin and good editing.

Financial engineering as a profession has exploded in the last 15 years, and has enlisted the minds of mathematicians, physicists, economists, engineers, as well as course everyday brokers and traders. This book is geared towards a mathematical audience, as one will need a background in the numerical solution of nonlinear partial differential equations and an understanding of stochastic processes (at the level of the Ito calculus). The author does devote a chapter to partial differential equations for readers who need it. Those readers with such a background will find the book very straightforward to read, especially those readers who are mathematicians or physicists, and are desiring to enter into the exciting field of financial engineering. The book is out of print, and an updated collection of books has been written by the author, but this one could still serve as an excellent introduction to the subject. In addition, this book has exercises, while the updated ones do not. Most of the results in the book can be used to develop practical trading strategies, and so the book qualifies more than being a mere academic exercise.

The author's approach is not always rigorous from a mathematical standpoint, but this is fine since the emphasis is on developing insight into the principles behind the subject, such as the principle of arbitrage, the idea of hedging, etc. Early on, the author shows what is involved in removing oneself from the Black-Scholes world, with clear explanations of jump conditions, time-dependent volatility, and path dependency. The discussion on the valuation of American style options using partial is illuminating considering this is typically done with Monte Carlo simulations. Another interesting part of the book is the derivation of the partial differential equation for the market price of volatility risk. In addition, the author gives an overview of how to speculate with options, a topic that is truly removed from the Black-Scholes world, but of course is taken up with enthusiasm by many traders the world over. This discussion is very interesting, in that it sheds light on just how subjective preferences enter into options trading; but it also shows that such preferences can be treated quantitatively. Assuming the asset price follows a random walk, the author derives an equation for the present value of the expected payoff, an equation that differs from the Black-Scholes equation in having the drift rate rather than the interest rate in the delta term. This risk-neutral valuation is dealt with in more detail in the author's discussion on portfolio management.

The author uses spreadsheets and Visual Basic to perform some of the numerical calculations, with many included on the accompanying CD. This is done no doubt to maintain the connection with practical trading. All of the mathematics and numerical studies could be done more efficiently though with a high-level programming language, such as Mathematica or Maple. The graphical capabilities of these languages will allow the reader to view the results of the calculations on-the-fly.

Some omissions in the book include discussions on energy and weather derivatives, but these are covered, although in not too much detail, in the author's more recent books. Also omitted is any discussion on bandwidth markets or derivatives trading in network capacity. This is also a new area, but one that is growing rapidly. Discussion of it will no doubt be included in future books on derivatives.

I myself find a hard time writing a review about this book, and thus not to be misleaded by the stars I gave. Perhaps what's preventing it from 5 stars is the nature of the task rather than the author's capability.

The book is so comprehensive such that it's going to be very difficult if not impossible to find the book with greater coverage on the subject. The level of discussion should be on the intermediate level or first-year graduate students. A good background on basic derivatives or mathematics ( algebra, differential calculus, and statistics) will proof sufficient in most of the cases to follow the mathematical detivations in the book. Working out the exercises at the end of each section will be a great pleasure to all the derivative students. Unlike many other text books which provided many difficult but interesting exercises but never the solutions elsewhere as if it's the author's intention to keep the secret with themselves forever, the Book's Instructor Manual with the solutions to all the exercises is separately available through the Publisher. However, I feel that the unexperienced readers should spend some time with a more directly accessible derivatives book such as Hull's classic ( Options, Futures, and Derivatives Securities ) before approaching this book. Once this is done, you'll realize that the Author knows the subjects very well and has his interesting ways to take you to a very heart of the concepts.

I think there are 2 limitations of this book that should be put forward. Some mathemetical concept on modern derivative pricing theory such as martingale or measure theory are only scantly touched throughout the book. Yet I have a good perception that it;s the Author's intention to follow his preferred PDE approach on derivatives pricing and to make a book more directly accessible to a practitioners i.e., derivative traders or researchers, rather than the full academic researchers. Also the treatments on interest rate through sufficiently comprehensive, is far from completion. However, the literature on interest rate derivatives is very farflung such that it should be treated in a place of it's own. I myself don't really look at this as a handicap on this book.

All in all, I can't find any good reason why this book shouldn't be on derivatives section shelf.

This is actually a wonderful introduction to the theory of derivatives and personally I find it to be a little humorous on occasion as well. There is definitely some ego here but it does not interfere with the author's sincere attempt to present the material in such a way that it can be understood easily by anyone with the required math background. That of course is the problem for some: this book requires a fairly extensive math background to be really understood. Fakers may try, but the successful will have a pretty good background in mathematics. That said, the discussion of stochastic calculus is better than many have led the casual onlooker to believe. It is not rigorous but is perfectly sufficient for the subject matter at hand. A good understanding of the material in this book will make the reader truly dangerous in the realms of the PDE theory of derivatives.

Don't get me wrong, the author doesn't seem stupid - he developed his own adaptive trend following method. But he has completely no idea how the market works and what can possibly work in the market. This book is a compilation of many technical trading methods, but most of them are stale and some ridiculously insane. Page 376-377 he has a chart and program to compute the moon's phase, because we should buy at full moon and sell at new moon? The selling point of the book is it contains some source code, but most of them are naive. Page 640 betrayed that the author only wrote the programs over twenty years ago when there was no graphics output. In regression he had to use many "*"s to draw the line. And why would any reader need the Fortran source code in the appendix to do regression? Remind you that those ten pages would cost you a buck.

In short, the book has no value for professionals. For individual investors, be aware - the book could actually be harmful because it gives you false confidence. In the investment world half bottle may be worse than you know you have nothing in the bottle.

Perry Kaufman offers a thorough and informative encyclopedia of trading systems and insights in a comprehensive guide of nearly 700 pages. The book is geared for a more advanced level of trader, as well as for someone interested in focusing on the mathematical foundations of building and testing trading systems. If you are looking for a detailed and mathematically-oriented approach to futures trading systems, then this highly quantitative book is for you.

The goal of Kaufman's book is "to give a you a complete understanding of the tools and techniques needed to develop or choose a trading program that has a good chance of being successful." He excludes commentary on market psychology and execution or trading skills in favor of focusing primarily on the development of a well-thought-out and tested system.

Kaufman has worked extensively in price forecasting, and he is a well-known technical expert in futures markets. He is a principal of an international investment firm and has written extensively on trading systems. Since he has an extensive background in futures trading and research, the futures markets remain the primary focus of the book. Any trader interested primarily in equity trading might find this book more advanced than necessary.

For anyone even remotely interested in learning about the complexities of trading systems, then this book does offer some interesting insights into how in depth some trading systems can become. For instance, the book explains techniques like trend and countertrend analysis, indicators, and various testing methods. Also covered are choice of data, diversification, time frames, trade selection, choosing a method of analysis, and testing.

As for the ongoing learning process that trading demands, I particularly liked the quote Kaufman uses at the beginning of the book. He quotes JRL as saying that "If you have a minute, I'll tell you how to make money in stocks. Buy low and sell high--Now if you have five or ten years, I'll tell you how to tell when stocks are low and high." Learning takes a lot of time, and if you have the time Kaufman's book is worth reading.

This is not so much an encyclopedia as it is a fairly complete compendium of various trading tools and strategies. Almost all such research focuses on the futures markets; the closest these get to the stock market is the S&P 500 index. This is true of technical analysis in general, so if you're interested in the stock market you will generally have to extrapolate.

Kaufman is a pretty able and knowledgeable reporter on the research results of others, but I have to say that in places the transcriptions are confusing, unclear and ambiguous. Even though the book is nearly 700 pages long, some of the coverage is too sparse -- while in other areas it seems too wordy. This 3rd edition could benefit from a start-to-finish re-organization/re-write, as some ideas are explained multiple times in various places and other ideas which are introduced early and deemed important are then ignored throughout the rest of the book. I'm thinking primarily of the basics of statistics and tests for significance; much of what might work at times is superfluous. My impression is that while Kaufman is very experienced in the markets and with trading systems in general, that he's a dilettante so far as really rigorous mathematics is concerned. Pick and choose among the many clever ideas here carefully. 3 1/2 stars.

This book is a MUST read for anyone in the options business. If you are planning on trading options for a firm or on the floor this book is like the bible (just ask anyone else). However, a word of caution, this is NOT a book for someone who wants to get an introduction to options (pick up Thomsett's book instead). In my opinion, this book is geared towards readers who want to know more about the details of how options are priced (something that every clerk or runner aspiring to be an options trader should know). In that aspect, it is one of a kind. An excellent read.

Obviuosly this book is a must read for anyone serious about trading options. However, Natenberg takes a complex science and explains the underlying fundamentals in a way that anyone can understand. I found this book to be a perfect primer on options pricing, trading and strategies.

Perhaps the most amazing success story in the markets and investing in the last 10 or 15 years is the growth of the options market, and the advent of inexpensive trading for derivatives such as options, allowing even the small and amateur investor to use these vehicles if he or she wants. I've read that the options market has grown more than ten-fold since the 80s, even more so than the stock market. This book will help you advance your knowledge of this important area of the market.

This is one of the few really high-level options books that are understandable without advanced math. I have a couple of other books on options and derivatives, and they require advanced calculus. It's still geared toward the professional, but as an amateur I still found it interesting and worthwhile reading. Be advised you'll probably still need to read an introductory book or two on options before tackling this volume, which is what I did. But after absorbing those two books, I found I had the background to read and appreciate Natenberg's book. Natenberg discusses all the advanced concepts so you learn such things as how to do butterfly option spreads, synthetic puts and calls, volatility spreads, how to remain delta and gamma neutral, and other such advanced concepts. Overall a great book and essential reading for anyone who wants a better understanding of this important area.

This book is just what I needed. I've been interested in options trading for a long time, but never found anything that could make sense out of how it works. This book did it for me. This guy, Tony Saliba, obviously knows his stuff - he didn't get profiled in "Market Wizards" for nothing. He earned his stripes through hard work and a proven plan that will work for anyone willing to learn and apply his fundamentals.

If you're interested in learning more about trading options, this is the place to start. Get the right info. from someone who has 'been there, done that' and take advantage of what he's learned along the way.

As a novice options trader, I have been searching for a book that not only clearly explains options but also does so in a practical "real-world" fashion. Saliba's book helped me to think like a trader. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to develop (or improve) his options trading game....

This was the 3rd book I've read on Options.

It really helped solidify and ingrain the concepts/strategies into my brain.

Thank you to the authors.