Option

I've heard about LW in the specialized press and because of his indicator %W.
I have been very disappointed by this book. There is something dishonest inside and outside of it. The title says "day trade futures online", in fact LW doesn't talk about day trading but about short term swing trading lasting 2 to 3 days !
He presents lots of wining systems which show quite good performances but mentions nothing about stoplosses nor exits. As we know, exiting a position is far more difficult than entering a trade. Believe it or not, the chapter about exit lays on less than 2 pages!

Disappointing...

I enjoyed parts one and three of Mr. Williams book, which is why I give it 3 stars, but found much of the material in the center section -- the real meat of this book -- of dubious value. In the hands of an enthusiastic and overly trusting beginner, this book could lead to mass wealth destruction.

I programmed and tested many of the patterns Mr. Williams promoted but could not duplicate the results he claims to have achieved, even though I used the same time periods, same timeframes and same system parameters he indicated. Also, many of the patterns that are put forth as generating > 80% profitable trades are heavily optimized and filtered for the purpose of presentation in this book. Using TradeStation for back-testing, I could not get even one of the recommended patterns to perform above 20% efficiency.

My goal in writing this review is not to criticize Mr. Williams but rather to warn budding traders that reliance on such convincing, well-told material as this can get you into a lot of trouble. With all due respect to Mr. Williams and his heavily advertised record as a trader and systems developer, let us all understand that he has built a substantial business around training others to trade. I suspect that the bulk of his income is generated from book sales, seminars and other paid programming that he delivers each year -- and not from the full-time implementation of the trading approaches put forth in this book. Again, I'm not bashing Mr. Williams but rather am sending up the warning flag to those who read this book.

To end this on a positive note, I found Mr. Williams's advice on entry and exit strategy to be useful, especially using a percentage of the current bar's range added to the next bar as a trade entry point following a verified set-up. His thoughts on money management strategy are also sound. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts here and good trading to all!

I am not a fan of day trading. I have been involved with futures for the past 11 years. In ever respect I have told my investors ... to stay away from day trading.

Now, I read Mr.Williams book and I begin to come a little more closer to understanding the idea of daytrading. Mr.Williams use personal anecdotes, clear concise language, and a very indepth analysis of what it takes to trade online.

It was a good read.

My first McMillan book was Options as a Strategic Investment. New investors should read that book first then move on to this one.This book goes beyond the theory and actually gets down to some real useful strategies. If you are trading options or plan to, this book is a must read.I also recommend The Option Advisor by Bernie Schaeffer and Wall Street Money Machine I, II and III by Wade Cook.

As a ROP (registered Options principal) I feel I am uniquely qualified to review this book. First, understand that Larry McMillan is considered by many to be the best options mind on Wall Street (sorry Bernie Schaeffer). His knowledge of this less-than-logical derivative investment is the equivalent of Alan Greenspan’s knowledge of the economy.

My assessment: this is a good book. McMillan covers virtually every aspect of options trading: history, terms, strategies, volatility, theoretical approaches, etc. I am particularly impressed by Larry’s use of historical examples to bring complicated strategies down to basic levels.

This is not to say this is an easy read. An easy investment read is Peter Lynch’s "One Up on Wall Street". McMillan on Options is more like a doctor’s guide to brain surgery: the pictures are cool but the content can be complicated. Topics covered include spreads (verts, calendar, diagonal), straddles, combos, the greeks (delta, rho, theta, vega and gamma) and strategies that employ these. If volatility is your life, and you hold a hefty position in Rolaids futures, then this book is for you. I have not read a more comprehensive, useable options book. I believe all options traders and speculators should own McMillan on Options.

As founder of "Traderscoach.com" I thought this book provided the reader with a realistic view of trading options.

You will learn alot about options and the proper approach to trading that is necessary to be a consistant winner.

McMillion writes this book in a no-nonsense realistic style. Pay attention to what he says.

Fell FREE to visit our Web-site "Traderscoach.com" which deals with Trading Psycology as well as other material realted to trading.

Evolution is one of those subjects where we know so little, that proposed theories usually turn out to be way off the mark in some areas. Advances in understanding mutation, genetics, brain development, and mental processes are beginning to give us powerful new clues that can open the doors to understanding some of what we have missed in the past. Mr. Gould has done a fine job of thinking through what this new learning could mean about evolution. I found my understanding of the science involved and its implications greatly enhanced by this book.

At the same time, I would be remiss if I did not point out that The Theory of Options is the worst written popular science book that I have ever read. Mr. Gould needs to meet an editor who understands his material. The writing is redundant, repetitious, and poorly grounded in many cases.

The Beak of the Finch is a book that greatly influenced my own perceptions of evolution. Under conditions which can vastly vary from year to year, species of finches in the Galapagos Islands rapidly evolved in terms of their beaks to fit the new feeding conditions over the space of just a few years. This often occurred by the premature death of most of the population that had the least appropriate beak sizes and types for that environment. The genes of the survivors reinforced these changes in beaks, as disciplined by competition for scarce food supplies that favored those with the most appropriate beaks.

Opening this book, I expected a strong argument based on the variability of living conditions that would favor Homo Sapiens developing flexible brains, learning, and decision processes that would speed and ease adaptation without requiring the death of most individuals. Although there was a bit of this approach as it related to migrating into different climate zones (and a too-often repeated example of humans using animals furs rather than their own fur to keep warm, as needed), too little was made of the idea that handling short-term variability in food and climate is critical to establishing a large population on Earth's land.

Instead, the Theory of Options builds from Mr. Gould's observation of the human psychological preference for having more freedom, in the form of choices (or options). The book also makes the point that a large brain that is mostly not hard-wired in stimulus-response ways (like fight or flight instincts) is only worthwhile if being aware of more options provides survival advantages. Now, if a larger, flexible brain provides the ability to find more and better survival solutions, that can be the basis of a new theory of evolution . . . regardless of whether or not Homo Sapiens always prefer to have more choices (something that can be disproven in many situations -- for example, auto dealers who offer fewer choices like Saturn outsell those who offer more like Chevrolet).

My reaction is that what Mr. Gold has articulated is a Theory of Rapid Flexibility, rather than a Theory of Options.

The most interesting parts of the book for me were the discussions of how phylogenies stabilize and become a platform for further evolution in new areas. I had often marveled that Homo Sapiens and chimpanzees have very small genetic differences (1-2%) yet are so different in their capabilities. The more phylogenies that exist, the less it will take for a new genetic difference to create vast advantages in survival performance assuming that the difference fits the environment.

I have often also wondered why we have such large brains, when we apparently use so little of them. From reading this book, I realized that evolutionary changes that work must bring in large, untapped capacity long before it is needed. For example, lions have the speed to catch many of the antelopes in a herd. Yet, they will usually focus on just catching the slowest antelopes. Under harder conditions, lions can chase faster antelopes and survive. More pressed for survival, humans could begin to use more of their brains. Perhaps in the past, more of brains were used as part of the environmental survival challenges faced then. Sexual selection will probably favor this approach, since the attribute will have obvious survival benefits. Until the 20th century, for example, many people thought that the shape of the head determined a great deal about a person's intelligence and character. Those beliefs could have been leftovers of sexual selection preferences that helped create people with larger brains.

One clever device in the book that I liked was the way that the primary schools of thought in these subjects were encapsulated into a brief quote at the beginning of each chapter and section of a chapter. This was a highly condensed way to express a broad perspective of the thought on these subjects, without wasting much of the reader's time and attention.

Mr. Gould suggests in the book that more editions will be coming. I hope he will do so, think about the observations that people have made, improve the arguments and exposition, and encourage people to reread the book in its newest form.

In highly readable language, this book gives a new way of looking at evolution that preserves human choice and daily responsibility. In addition, "The Theory of Options" provides an excellent view of social interaction and individual foundations of behavior. I enjoyed this book for the wide variety of topics, particularly the section that showed how this theory might be used by psychologists for insight into why we do the things we do. For daily human behavior, this theory preserves free will and choice instead of making us solely a product of our genes. The ability of this theory to explain both behavior in the here and now and to give a logical alternative to pure "survival of the fittest" evolution is remarkable.

Another great section of this book is the chapter about the "wiring" of the brain and artificial intelligence. This chapter shows that the mental image of a brain being wired is not always accurate since so much of our brain's makeup is determined by learning and not solely by genetics. Providing great detail about the strengths, weaknesses, similarities, and differences of computers and the human brain, this section also illuminates many of the "hard" problems of artifial intelligence while also reminding us that are many things that human do extraordinarily well.

Overall this book gives a good new theory for human evolution and behavior while illuminating many current topics from diverse fields in light of this theory. I enjoyed the reading of a logical, well written book, which gave me many insights into why people are the way they are, in a well thought out manner. I would recommend this book to psychologists, biologists, and anyone interested in the areas of behavior, human or artificial intelligence, or evolution. Excellent.

Sean Gould has presented a theory of the evolution of human intelligence that deserves serious consideration. For years, experts have attempted to rationalize how and why and generalized intelligence would evolve through natural selection.

Gould's theory of options addresses this problem head on. Current theories try to connect each attribute of intelligence (culture, language, religion, courting habits) to specific environmental factors but that misses the point. Intelligence had to evolve, in its first instance, as a generalized resource. This book offers one of the most original ways to reconcile the many puzzling facts of this topic, that I have seen.

Read the book.

The first thing that you'll notice is that this is a skimpy, short book at 134 pages (160 if you include the appendices). This would be ok if the content was substantial and useful. Unfortunately, it provides a very introductory, shallow overview of the covered call writing strategy. This too would be ok if this was a $15 quick read paperback, but it's an expensive hardcover (which is not worth the price). I'd suggest the interested reader should check other books on the subject instead.

In general covered call writing is a conservative option trading strategy, and this book covers the subject in more detail than any other option book I've seen. It is incumbent on me to say several things about it though. For one, writing puts is identical to covered call writing, yet is a superior technique since it involves one commission instead of two. If you're interested in covered call writing, after you get some experience in it learn about put writing. Second, and most important, you can lose plenty of money with covered calls. All that has to happen is the stock goes way down. You'll never get even close to all your money back by writing lower strike calls on it. You do lose less than if you just owned the stock, but get past the idea that this is a perfectly safe way to make money. It's not. Another main point is that over time, its hard to beat the market with this technique. You can match the market with less risk though, so it is a good technique from a risk reward basis. But, especially after taxes, you probably won't beat an index fund.

I have read and applied the strategy for writing covered call options. This IS an excellent manual for trading with far less risk and with much greater return than I thought possible. If you are conservative and yet want better than above average returns with less risk, (heaven right?) then this book is for you!

This is a very, very, basic document on Options. If one wants athorough understanding of options, the CBOE has a large selection ofdocuments at no cost. They also offer seminars throughout the country also for free.

The best characterization of the Book is an "InfoMercial" for a product they sell. Infact when you go to their Web Page, ... and subscribe using the special offer, you will receive a copy for Free.

Okay, I have a confession...I haven't read the book yet, and I accept that it's a basic primer...however, after reading other reviews a week ago, I decided to check out their website. I AM still a novice trader but I'm very serious about this business and have - in the course of my studies the past year - read most of the top trading books, availed myself of the "hottest" trading web sites, tutorials, etc., and demoed numerous highly rated/expensive software programs. Now, the thing that sorta shocked me on the CompleteTrader site was that their proprietary indicators are similar to some I paid $600 for from a well-known trader with a respected 30 year record! Not only that, but the Brock's versions of these (proven) indicators is actually MORE advanced than those I purchased...go figure. Anyway, tomorrow I'm e-mailing them to sign up for $55 and get six months of their service. The way I look at it, I could've saved myself $545!...ouch! As for the book...come on, so what if they're trying to market their website?...it's value for the $$ (in my humble "novice" oppinion) is one helluva bargain! So...I'm giving their little primer 4-stars simply based on the quality of their website. I know a lot of new/or aspiring traders read the amazon reviews, so I hope my recommendation might be of service to some of you. Really, check out what they have to offer...backtest it, try it on paper...I think you might be surprised at its usefulness. By the way, I don't know the Brock's and this is the first "review" I've ever written.

This book is an excellent beginners guide to the complex subject of options trading. Not only is it a good introduction but it is also useful to the seasoned trader. It is very readable and the subject treatment is very "user friendly." I have read many books on options trading and technical indicators and, for the beginner, this book is, by far, one of the best. It combines methods of stock selecting, trading philosophy, and some of the do's and don't's of trading into a thorough package. Coupled with their website with its daily updates and links, CompleteTrader has a very comprehensive and "complete" package.

It seems the examples in this book are clones of those found in Hull. Odd, since the author seems to want to use more sophisticate math. Since the author can't explain calculus or properly define terms, there is doubt there is even that basic understanding. Pass on this and buy Hull instead for better clarity and better examples.

The statement on the back this book that all the reader needs is some basic calc and a bit of probability is, as when you see it on most other similar books, false. To truly understand what is going on you need a prior knowledge of PDEs as well as some stochastic calculus. If you read this book after you have studies these you will learn a lot from it, but without this prior knowledge the book is too difficult to follow. I would recommend it to a reader who has seen the martingale approach to the subject before, and has at least studied ODEs and has a book on PDEs to refer to when the PDEs become too difficult to follow. The book manages to cover a lot, but you can't read a chapter and expect to have a good understanding from only reading the material. Most derivations, and even formulas, are left as exercises, and you need to complete at least 30% of the end of chapter exercises to firmly understand the material that the authors have covered. If you already have a good grasp of mathematical finance, this book can be a good way to further enhance your understanding, but don't buy this as an introductory book unless you are very strong in PDEs.

This book is an excellent introduction to the use of finite difference and binomial methods to the pricing of equity options - regular and exotic/path-dependent. Requires only undergraduate calculus, and provides some intuition about the finance. Has exercises and solutions for people who want to learn. The "parent" book (Option pricing: mathematical models and pricing by P. Wilmott) has more information (although a little pricey!), is in fact used by financial "quants".

The first thing I thought when I finished this novel was say to myself: "What the hell was going on?" Even from the start of Kilo Option, Flannery baffles the reader. It reads as if he just slapped together a few action filled chapters without connecting them. The dialogue sounds like something out of an old G.I. Joe cartoon, and the characters all look alike and talk like John Wayne. I think Flannery intended Bill Lane to be the next Jack Ryan or Jake Grafton, but it doesn't come off. Bill Lane doesn't have the intelligence to be either of them. Flannery's novels do not have the authenticity of either a Clancy or Bond, and the scene aboard the freighter is an absolute and shameless rip-off of The Hunt For Red October. The plot is not well thought-out. What in the hell is Kilo Option anyway? The reader keeps guessing, and never finds out, and on top of that, we're threatened with a sequel. If you want to read something more plausible, read any novel by Clancy or Bond. Even a James Bond novel seems more plausible than this.

Kilo Option has more action on one page, than does Hunt for Red October in the entire book! Should appeal to the techno-thriller fan. One of his best books.
Read also "By Dawn's Early Light(written by him under the name of David Hagberg)

Lots of action and intrigue. I had a lot of fun reading this book, and believe that you will, too. Definitely one of his better, if not, best books to date. Far better than Tom Clancy, if you want a book that moves along, he takes the appropriate amount of pages to tell a story, unlike Clancy who takes a thousand pages, to write a three hundred page story.
Unfortunately he no longer writes under this name, but now writes strictly under the name of David Hagberg, rehashing the same 'Formulaic' story over, and over again, with his semi-retired spy/assassin Kirk McGarvey as his main protagonist.

The book was written 1997, do not get confused with the publishing date of 2003. The printed daily line charts are from 1997 without hardly any description. The same almost applies to the numerous useless pages filled with tables of historical spread trades that could have been done between 1981 and 1996. This book does not contain stategies at all. Furthermore the book is full of sentences of the following kind: "Computer generated Numbers. Most traders have a library of proven computer numbers. They may be applied with success in spread trading. The only caveat however, is that they usually are not self-contained systems and should be used along with the several other devices I have spoken about."
My advice: Walk away from this trade!

If I had wanted a psychology book I would have bought one! Mr. Abell is obviously obsessed with the subject as there is almost nothing in this book that gives the nuts and bolts of spread trading. 45% deals with the psychology of trading, 45% of it are interviews with "successful" spread traders, and the remaining 10% if you discount the charts deals with spreading. Save your money.

The title is very misleading due to the fact that this book contains no trading strategies. It does, however, do a good job of talking about the psychology of trading (one of the most important aspects). The interviews are good but contain no real practical knowledge. In my opinion, save the money and go for another, perhaps more advanced book if you're concerned with trading strategies. I will not even recommend this book to the beginner for it requires a broad knowledge of how the trading floor works. This book mentions little about value (the MOST important thing about legging and trading spreads). As far as spread trading goes, this isn't the one. Dan Vassallo (New York Cotton Exchange).

My original hope when picking this book up from the library was to learn about shorting stocks. Unfortunately Manuel Asensio's book is written on a level where few people can even relate. Mr. Asensio speaks in a language that only very experienced stock shorters can even understand. Whereas some of Asensio's use of language is a bit colorful, he writes wildly about all these key names like his audience is completely familiar with unknown CEO's from unknown companies. Why not talk about some of the big time tech stocks that tanked in the early 2000's like Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and the late Enron? I actually stopped reading this book midway because of the incessant name dropping.

There are a few pages where Ansensio talks about stock shorting basics and how he started in the business. Maybe if Ansensio related to a wider audience, this book would hae a good reputation. Like this he merely talks how he uncovers terrible fraud and should be viewed as a champion of justice. Mr. Ansensio, you need a big time reality check.

What makes this a fun read is the "rogues gallery of thugs, schemers , and goofballs" who are running stock market scams, and who vociferously object to Asensio's activities. Stock scams tend to attract hysterical promoters with a flair for the dramatic. I particularly enjoyed the little details - the guy who shows up in court in a dress, the threatening emails, the Maria Bartiromo connection. What makes it exciting is Asensio's own precarious finances - he could go broke at any minute as he is hit with lawsuits and stock price manipulation that hurts the values of his holdings.

This guy is certainly not afraid of making enemies - his targets range from major investment banks to the SEC to Christie Todd Whitman - and, OK, I admit he seems a bit paranoid at times. I'm also puzzled a bit by his faith in the efficient markets hypothesis - he says he doesn't believe in short squeezes because they don't reflect fundamental values, yet it seems to me the whole point of the book is that stocks can be overpriced.

This book hits hard, naming names, dates, and connections. After reading this you will wonder why these people that are detailed in the book are not in jail. For the most part, historical info as detailed in the book is still available. I went to the SEC site and looked up 4 of the mentioned companies and whoa, all the filings are there. Read them yourself, they are free to the public. There are companies out there who make nothing, sell nothing, and their only source of income is selling (scamming) stock. Asensio unmasks a few of them and it's like stirring up a hornet's nest.
The book itself is fun and reads like a mystery, you don't get bored. He has some personal history which explaines where he came from. He does do a little cheerleading but it should be expected. Asensio and his small crew take on the Giants of Wall Street, wage battle, and sometime win. Along with "The Predators Ball" this book is a must read for new or experienced stock investors.

Don't bother buying this book. It is so general and vague it's not worth the money. It rehashes tech analysis etc., that most would already know. It sheds no light into the world of SSF at all.

This is would serve as a great introductory piece for those unfamiliar with the futures market. It does a great job of explaining what single stock futures is all about. But for those who are really interested in profiting from the market I will suggest they turn to specialised technical books like those of John J.Murphy("Technical Analysis Of The Financial Markets") and Edwards & Magee("Technical Analysis Of Stock Trends"). The basics of technical analysis espoused in both books apply well to the new single stock futures.

Good introduction to trading with futures. I appreciated the trading indicators and methods shared by the author. Knowing what stock futures are and knowing how to actually trade them are two different things, and this book does a valuable service in sharing good trading strategies with us. Thank you!