Option

I would check out what the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had to report before you purchase the book. I am making no claims on the effectiveness of the system, but it appears the CFTC states some of the advertised claims are inaccurate. If you search for Curtis Aronld on the web, you should run across the document that I did on the CFTC's web site.

Simple and easy trend seeking method for even a beginner. But if you are already a sophisticated chartist or finding some more exciting speculation method, this one will not be for you since it is talking only about the traditional pattern break out and moving average method. However, in the medium to long trend seeking investments, there are always that 'simple is the best.'

Very good technical analysis tool for commodities futures. Exposes some of the common technical patters that are used,such as double tops and bottoms, head and shoulders,etc. Should be one of the books in your library for futures trading.

I found Arditti's writing to be simply attrocious. What the marketplace needs is a clear, concise guide to instrument structure and valuation, and Mr. Arditti writes in circles. As an example, his chapter on option pricing refers to "using the methods used previously in this chapter" without referring to how to apply these to the method just introduced. The method just introduced was explained using numbers that were presumably fabricated, but lord only knows, because the author can't be bothered to specify how his example was structured.

In trying to explain things simply, the author fails to explain anything clearly. "Derivatives" is an extreme disappointment. As a reference, this book may have some use, but if you're looking to learn something from it, stear clear.

This book is an excellent resource for beginning and intermediate level fund managers who want to understand the derivatives to be able to use them in risk hedging and income maximization.

The book is excellently organized in four sections and each section is self sufficient. Each of the sections begin with basics, illustrates the concepts with example, introduces the mathematics of pricing and methodology of hedginag of risks

Every section has also a nice subsection on terminology and definitions.

The book is an excellent attempt to explain a highly technical and complex subject.The section on Interest Rate swaps is outstanding. A must read for all corporate money managers and a must addition to all financial libraries.

I am completely satisfied with this book. He knows how to design derivatives and make them work. This book does a remarkable job of explaining the theory and practice of derivative securities.

Classic Hull, with good problems sets, but a little dated. While this is the best of its type, I gave it only three stars, because it falls short on practical applications and descriptions of current products.

For example, I bought and recommend "Credit Derivatives" by Tavakoli, since I was looking for material on this subject, and this manual didn't cover these products in any detail.

Well, what can I say. Hull's solutions manual is practical but not entirely useful book. I need more professional solved cases, specially of the real life. The exercises are very simple. Any way, it's a good manual for beginners in derivatives instruments.

There are many exercises after each chapter of Hull's book and they help a lot in understanding the chapter's content and many questions are very classic. You've got to have this solution manual to know the answers! More importantly, many of the homework questions and even exam questions in my class were very similar to the exercises and I benefited a lot from having this solutions manual! Thank you!

"This book is about mathematical tools". That's the first sentence of Vince, who as it turns out markets his books as heavy on math. I'd bet that he never had college classes in math, or physics, or finance for that matter. His book is full of mathematical depths like explaining why 1+2*3 is equal to 7, not to 9, or giving four reasons why asterisks is the best symbol for multiplication. Another brilliant example is when he illustrates how to combine three assets with different weights: 10% of A, 10% of B, 80% of C; 10% of A, 20% of B, 70% of C, and then three more pages of other different combinations. General math level of this book is a level of B-student in the seventh grade who has never derived a mathematical formula or proved mathematical fact. Then, considerable part of the book is authors comments on trading wisdom, like "first loss is the best loss". Then, there are some ramblings on normal ditributions and Capital asset pricing theory. About 60 pages are appendices on completely irrelevant topics like he writes Black-Scholes formula, or normal distribution, or his grandiose program duplicated in C and Basic.

The "stuff" of this book, which is the so-called "f-ratio" is explained on about ten pages. You can understand it, although it is not a clear explanation. Better probably to read it where the author got it in the first place. It is difficult to say if f-ratio has much practical importance because of assumption of indefinite divisibility of trading contracts.

Most of all this book reminded me a project done overnight for a school or college class where you put a little stuff in the middle and then pad it for volume with anything you can come up with because you need to satisfy the minimum length requirement.

The problem with optimal f is that the calculation is highly dependent on the largest loss on a trade (not drawdown) experienced in backtesting. If you use optimal f and the largest loss in actual trading is greater than the loss experienced in backtesting, you will go bankrupt. Vince deals with this problem in an offhanded manner by suggesting that the actual f you use should be "padded". OK, so in the end you don't even use the actual optimal f, you pad it. And how much do I pad it by? Vince is silent on this question. So the purpose of optimal f - to decide by formula how much capital to allocate to a trade - is totally negated by the fact that you must "pad" optimal f. And you must pad it by a qualitativly determined amount because, again, Vince gives no formula on how much to pad it by. Optimal f is totally useless for system traders or any other trader for that matter.

... this book is incredible. I have a degree in mathematics and the principles expressed are extremely sound -- but far more important than the formulas are the first couple of chapters which cause you to view trading in a very different, and statistical, manner. Although the theories in this book can really only be applied to a trading system (which I haven't really used), after reading this book over several times I understand that there is a mathematical certainty that I will eventually lose my trading capital if I don't start approaching trading in a more systematic fashion. Anyway, I highly recommend it -- the sections on gambling theory alone are worth buying it.

It's OK as far as it goes, but it IS after all, only one person's account of her experience. Otherwise, having been given a mildly borderline diagnosis "possible Graves", I quickly figured out that going on the internet would probably give me more information from which to make my own decisions about what is, after all, my (as opposed to the medical industry) body. If you do feel the need to buy this book, do so. Otherwise, read the reviews, go on the internet, and save your money.

Readers looking for books on Graves' Disease have few choices, so anything on the subject is welcome, especially if you are newly diagnosed. While Kate Flax's empathy and genuine desire to help others comes through on most pages, the book is a muddle of poor punctuation, listless writing, careless spelling errors (example: spelling Dr. Andrew Weil "Dr. Wile"), and generally could have benefited from the work of a proofreader or copyeditor. Flax writes that she is dyslexic, but surely someone could have read the manuscript before it was printed? The errors, which abound on every page, distracted this reader from an otherwise valuable and informative book. Despite the protestations of Natalie Goldberg and Anne Lamott, both of whom are mentioned in Flax's acknowledgments and both of whom have encouraged thousands of fledgling writers, not everyone is a writer. At the very least, this book proves that certainly not everyone is a proofreader. This book feels like a manuscript-length post in an online support group. The errors in form reflect poorly on the accuracy of the information contained in the book. If you are the kind of person who corrects misspellings on billboards, this book will drive you nuts and is best to be avoided. If you're not this kind of reader, you may find the contents comforting and helpful.

As a newly diagnosed patient, this is a book I need in my life. I am so grateful to have found it. Not only is this book informative with a terrific index, glossary, and resource section, but heartfelt and easy to read besides. Kate Flax's personal excursion to wellness is truly inspiring and gives me the strength and hope to make that path mine.

I LOVED the original "Code of the Lifemaker" so long ago, but 20 years later, I found this sequel to be nothing short of appalling, bad in ways that suggest Hogan has no respect either for his audience or even himself.

While the original showed a wonderful imagination, it was grounded in both real science and the way real people behave. The sequel, on the other hand, is grounded in neither, and reads more like Internet fan fiction or an entry in some sort of "bad science fiction" contest. When I read the paragraph where Hogan described the notebook of "correct opinion" the evil media elites distribute to newsrooms as part of the vast, sinister media conspiracy (literally), I had to re-read the paragraph several times, since I didn't want to believe something so comically stupid could have been written by someone who once seemed destined to be one of the great science fiction writers.

Nope, he did write it. And into the garbage went this book.

If you're looking for wonder and imagination set in Saturn's orbit, check out John Varley's Gaea trilogy instead, and stay well away from "The Immortality Option."

Twelve years after publishing "Code of the Lifemaker", Hogan followed the steps of that success with this sequel. The main characters are back (with Karl Zambendorf at the top of all of them) and also the background is set on Titan.

Being asked to write this sequel by his publisher, Hogan responded that he did not want to as he had effectively finished the story on "Code of the Lifemaker". Nevertheless, the publisher insisted and Hogan intelligentely found a thread from the first novel to follow an adventure which has weight enough to carry on the story.

Although the charm and originality of the initial situation has faded, Hogan compensates with a fast-paced adventure and a satisfactory conclusion to what can be labelled as the series of "Zambedorf on Titan".

Rating=3

In the original, the author blew me away with natural evolution for robots. In this book, he keeps artful, suspenseful control of a plot that spans over a million years, two star systems, three very distinct species, and several outstanding individuals.

I made the mistake of reading this book before going to bed..I couldn't put it down to go to sleep! The mood swings, sometimes abruptly, from wonder, to laugh-out-loud funny, to nail-biting tension.

All my favorite characters from the original return, and are joined by the imaginatively-rendered Borijans and their AI GENIUS in a three-way battle for the future of Titan, which is also a battle between science and nonsense, gullibility and guile, compassion and selfishness.

I also wrote TradeStation code for each of the trades and then tested the last few years and wasn't happy with the results. It was at best a break even strategy with plenty of risk. I expect the trades were just curve fitted to write a book.

it's a little different than most. Actually has entry orders on breakout of hi or lo of x number of days, and rules for placement of stoploss and raising of stoploss. Some trades have an exit on x date if not stopped out, some don't. Some trades are designed to catch a swing either way.

He also writes a fundemental rational as to why each of these trades should work.

Each trade, 41 in all, has a different set of rules, so I am sure there is some curve fitting done here.

Some of the trades I would have never taken because a move was over and some trades should have been entered early by trend breakout. some trades were entering , take a loss and rentering at a worse position and taking a bigger loss. especially in the index's. One trade had an exhit date , so the trade ended, but technically the trade could have made much, much, "MUCH" more ( price kept going up and up.) But for test purposes I tried to stay true to the rules.

All in all I enjoyed studying the book and the trades as they would have been put on and the ones that are still open or awaiting signals at this time. I tried to build in slippage in the fills I accepted, taking the lowest price for a fill if going short and vice versa when going long.

I was unable to evaluate the recommended trades in the Value line because I don't have the data.

All in all the 41 trades less the value line trades ( some recommendation are in and out 2-3 times during the valid trade period.) posted a loss of ($3748)plus 51 commissions.

If you break out the index trades and forget them, ( or you could trade minis-(I did not figure the profit/loss for minis) Trading the remaining recommended trades- you would have made $15,827 less 38 commissions.

I eleminated another group of trades leaving only markets that can be traded in chicago as either full contracts or mid am's. The figures generated are still full contracts and the Gold is still COMEX ( but gold is traded at MidAm as well as CBOT )Now you have a profit of $12,135 less 18 commissions.

to take this one step further culling this list to Bonds, notes, beans, beanoil,and corn ( all cbot contracts ). you would have a profit trading 1 contract per position of $14,382 less 11 commissions. You would need about $10,000 margin account unless trading bonds and notes on midam, then probably $6-7000. would possible be sufficient. my testing period was from 7/6/99-7/13/99.

The book has 20 years of testing and results done for each trade thru 1997 on all and 1998 on some of the trades.

I WILL be looking at these trades in the future.

An excellent book that defines time periods for entering trades based on seasonal research, then provides fully disclosed technical systems for defining entry, exits, stops, and a back test of generally 20 years for each seasonal trade. Although the technical system varies slightly for each trade, the underlying concept is intermediate to long-term trend following, and some of the technical systems would be reasonably profitable even without considering seasonality, that is just the icing on the cake. Highly recommended, I'm repeating the back testing and anxious to start trading some of these systems.

Readers would buy this book assuming that they will be able to master the concept of volatility, and use it in their options trading, but this is far from being the case.
One would expect a book that deals with an advanced concept such as volatility, to take it as a given that the readers are already familiar with all the basics such as "an option gives the buyer the RIGHT not the OBLIGATION" etc.I estimate that about 2/3 of the book deals with such beginner stuff.
On top of that, the authors don't even try to conceal that their primary purpose in writing the book is to deliver traffic to their premium web service.
I did learn a few things about volatility, but I was left with the feeling that I was tricked

The title might suggest that this is an advanced options book; no, it is not. Three quarters of the content is a mix of other G. Fontanills books, and one quarter some updated material on skews, calendar spreads, sentiment measures, etc. The book is a weird mix of information for total newbies to the stock market and intermediate level options traders. There are some errors and typos in the book as well, so be careful when you apply the strategies to your real life trading.

As an Options Trader I was always overwelmed by all the tools available to me, and by the barrage of financial news. I had information paralisys.

Where do I start? What kind of stock behavior should I be trading in this current market? And once I found a stocks I liked, What kind of strategy needs to be applied? Exactly how do I find the best options for this stock?

This book is the real thing. I am a "follow the checklist" kind of person, and I have always been looking for sensible process to look for trades. Something simple yet able to give me consistent results.

Knowing that Implied volatility is such a factor in option pricing, I now can navigate thru tha maze of option chains and pick exactly what is required for my trades, because now I know what trade needs to be done.

This book is fascinating and it has the "See thru the eyes of the trader" approach I was looking for.

This book has now taken the place of about five other books that I will be auctioning online.

A Masterpiece!!!

The idea for this book is a good one, but the execution is not. It is hard to read and follow. Options are confusing enough anyway without confusing writing about them.

Before reading this, or any, options book, one should go to [website] and study the subject thoroughly. Once you know the basics, this book can be appreciated. Note: unless one has at least about $5000, someone should quite probably stick to buying calls or puts (which the author, the late Mr. Gross rightfully labels as an 'aggressive' strategy), depending on the market's and a stock's overall outlook.
This book is at its best when used by someone with more than $5000 (and preferably more like $10,000) who can use the time-tested hedging strategies effectively detailed here. Investors on a tighter budget would likely do better with Charles Caes'"Tools of the Bull" or "Tools of the Bear" (the "Bear" book can be easily adapted to using in a bull market also). Options investors should also know some technical analysis, John Murphy's "Charting Made Easy" is a good, cost-effective source.
The layout of this book is clean and makes it easy to read. Gross was a good writer, relaying his ideas clearly to the reader. Any options book will confuse a beginner, learn them first at [website].

Most trading books give you well chosen examples of how great their methods work. Rarely the risk and downside. This one shows you the strategies, and the risks if it all goes wrong, as well as the potential profits. It walks you through clear examples and describes over a dozen strategies in a simple manner. Some I surprisingly wasn't familiar with. For example, this is one of the few option texts that mentions and walks though calendar spreads.

If you can't understand this book, you shouldn't be trading options. It is one of only 4 option texts I have kept in my library. The only criticism I have is that this book was written before discount brokers, the commissions weren't updated in the examples. You should not be without this one. Larry McMillan wouldn't be involved if it wasn't first class.

Another good one is Trester's "The Complete Option Player".

It appears that Gotthelf dictated much of this book into a tape recorder, some far-away typist created the manuscript, and nobody bothered to read or edit the final result. How else to explain that "Jim Ellis is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Oracle" on p.43 (I thought it was Larry Ellison)? These sorts of editorial lapses are rife throughout the book.

To name but a few examples, Fig 6.5 caption says "Cash Currency trading screen" but it's actually a bar chart of Yen futures (p.124)

The data for Figure 8.11 (a perpetual contracts bar chart of Yen) is presented with the caption of Figure 8.10 ("Soybeans futures monthly chart"). No soybeans chart is presented at all; instead, a Nikkei futures chart mysteriously appears (p. 212)

Figure 8.41 is printed upside down! (p.236). Honestly. This is perhaps the ultimate insult to the reader and ought to be a source of acute embarrassment to the editor and author.

Academy Award nominee James Caan, with two a's, will be amused to read p. 89 which states "... has been depicted in fiction such as the movie Rollerball starring James Cann" with two n's.

Those who buy the book believing it may deliver on the dustjacket's promise "How to trade the world's biggest market" will receive a disappointment. The only trading strategy Gotthelf reveals is "Go Long when price crosses above a moving average, Go Short when price crosses below a moving average." Then he regurgitates standard methods of creating a synthetic position using options. There is absolutely nothing new here.

No review would be complete without mentioning Gotthelf's mysterious concept of Parity. First he tells you it's "a ratio that always equals one" (page 24). Next he tells you "there are no exact relationships" in FOREX (page 32), leaving you to wonder how Parity could always equal one if there are no exact relationships. Then he muddles through two hundred more pages and eventually you, the reader, decode the fact (which Gotthelf never bothers to state exactly) that his "Parity" actually means "Equilibrium". Great. But where's the insight?

I own several other Wiley Finance books and all of them have wonderful quotes from important figures in the trading world, in the form of testimonials and gushing recommendations on the rear dustjacket. Kaufman's "Trading Systems and Methods" has five, Hill and Pruitt's "The Ultimate Trading Guide" has four, Ryan Jones's "The Trading Game" has five, Sweeney's "Maximum Adverse Excursion" has three, et cetera ad nauseum. But this currency book by Gotthelf has exactly zero quotes on the dustjacket. No recommendations, no congratulations, no endorsements. I suggest you follow the advice of everyone who DIDN'T write a recommendation for Gotthelf's book: stay away.

As the author of the book "Futures For Small Speculators" I tend to be very critical of books that discuss my industry. Although this book had a few editorial mistakes, Mr.Gotthelf still did a solid job of getting his point across. For a beginner this is a great start. For more indepth analysis I would go to Mr. Cornelius Luca's books.

OK, I don't know if Soros used this resource, but he probably would have enjoyed it. This is a classic for anyone who wants to engage in serious trading or speculation in the foreign exchange markets. This book entertains as it illustrates. One caveat is convertibility risk detailed in Tavakoli's book on "Credit Derivatives". We saw this happen in several Latin American countries, Iran, and more, and that effects settlement on foreign exchange and foreign exchange options. Another product Tavakoli writes about is credit default contingent foreign exchange. One can speculate and earn big premiums, but the risk is difficult to evaluate.