The Options Playbook

In order to survive and thrive in today's financial markets, you must seriously consider the use of options in your investment endeavors. Options allow you to reap the same benefits as an outright stock or commodity trade, but with less risk and less money on the line. The truth is, you can achieve everything with options that you would with stocks or commodities?at less cost?while gaining a much higher percentage return on your invested dollars. After numerous years as a market maker in the trenches of the New York Mercantile Exchange, few analysts know how to make money trading options like author Lee Lowell. In this well-rounded resource, Lowell shows both stock and commodity option traders exactly what works and what doesn't. Filled with in-depth insight and expert advice, Get Rich with Options provides you with the knowledge and strategies needed to achieve optimal results within the options market. The book quickly covers the basics?how options are priced, strike price selection, the use of Delta, and using volatility to one's advantage?before moving on to the four options trading strategies that have helped Lowell profit in this arena time and again: buying deep-in-the-money call options, selling naked puts, selling option credit spreads, and selling covered calls. Using these strategoes decisively, he says, is the fastest route to riches in the options trading game. Get Rich with Options is packed with real-life examples of actual trades and detailed discussions of how options can be used as a hedging, speculating, or income-producing tool. You'll learn how to set up a home business with the best options trading software, tools, and Web sites. And you'll begin to see options in a whole new light and discover how to become part of a small group of investors who consistently win.

"Guy Cohen is the master when it comes to taming the complexities of options. From buying calls and puts to iron butterflies and condors, Guy explains these strategies in a clear and concise manner that options traders of any level can understand. His chapter on options and taxes is especially welcomed (and needed). The Bible of Options Strategies is a straightforward, easy-to-use reference work that should occupy a space on any options trader's bookshelf." –Bernie Schaeffer, Chairman and CEO, Schaeffer's Investment Research, Inc. "The author delivers clarity, insight and perception making learning about options a joy, and practicing the art of making money that much easier: truly a bible from a guru." –Alpesh B. Patel, Author and Financial Times Columnist "Guy Cohen truly makes learning about options easy in this fact-filled guide. Bullet points make for a quick and enlightened read, getting to the heart of what you really need to know about each options strategy. This book is a must for any serious trader's library." –Price Headley, Founder, BigTrends.com Pick the right options strategies...implement them step-by-step...maximize your profits! Introducing today's first and only comprehensive reference to contemporary options trading! OptionEasy creator Guy Cohen identifies today's popular strategies...and tells you exactly how and when to use each one and what hazards to look out for! It's all here.... Basic Strategies including Buying and shorting shares, calls, and puts. Income Strategies including Covered Call, Naked Put, Bull Put Spread, Bear Call Spread, Long Iron Butterfly, Long Iron Condor, Calendar Call, Diagonal Call... Vertical Spreads including Bull Call Spread, Bull Put Spread, Bear Call Spread, Bear Put Spread, Ladders... Volatility Strategies including Straddle, Strangle, Guts, Short Butterflies, Short Condors... Sideways Strategies including Short Straddle, Short Strangle, Short Guts, Long Butterflies, Long Condors... Leveraged Strategies including Call Ratio Backspread, Put Ratio Backspread, Ratio Spreads... Synthetic Strategies including Collar, Synthetic Call, Synthetic Put, Synthetic Straddles, Synthetic Futures, Combos, Box Spread... ...and many more strategies... Plus essential tax-saving information, and more! No other book presents this much authoritative, current information on options trading strategies Covers all of today's best income, volatility, leveraged, synthetic, and sideways market strategies Discover why each strategy works, when it's appropriate, and how to use it—step by step Includes a full chapter on tax issues associated with options strategies By Guy Cohen, whose OptionEasy application has helped thousands of traders achieve breakthrough results! The Bible of Options Strategies is the definitive reference to contemporary options trading: the one book you need by your side whenever you trade. Options expert Guy Cohen systematically presents today's most effective strategies for trading options: how and why they work, when they're appropriate, when they're inappropriate, and how to use each one responsibly and with confidence. The only reference of its kind, this book will help you identify and implement the optimal strategy for every opportunity, trading environment, and goal. © Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Want to become a truly great trader – either for yourself or for a proprietary trading firm? This book will help you get there. This unique approach is the closest thing to signing up for a “trader boot camp” yourself! You’ll learn by watching new traders walk through actual trades, explain what they’ve tried to do, and try to survive brutally tough expert critiques. One trade at a time, The Playbook reveals how professional traders must think in order to succeed “under fire,” how they assess their own performance, and how they work relentlessly to improve. Using concrete, actionable setups drawn from his extensive trading and training experience, Bellafiore walks through an extraordinary array of trades, showing readers how to maximize profits and avoid disastrous hidden pitfalls. He covers support plays, bull-and-bear flags, opening drives, important intraday levels, bounce and fade trades, pullbacks, scalps, technical opportunities, consolidation, relative strength, market trades, and more. He also presents indispensable insights on psychology and trader development, based on his work with hundreds of traders on a major commodity exchange and an elite prop firm’s trading desk. Packed with color, personality, and realism, this is an exciting guide to real-world trading.

A comprehensive yet simplified guide to the complex world of options investing and risk management Before trading derivatives, one needs to understand the secrets and mechanics behind the options market. Your Options Handbook: The Practical Reference and Strategy Guide to Trading Options offers a straightforward, practical explanation of the options marketplace, including its origins, the mechanics of the market, and how to profit from trading options. Walks you through the stock and option markets from a professional's perspective, but uses plain language and simple analogies Discusses different trading strategies based upon whether one's opinion of the market is bullish, bearish, or neutral Details market players, useful tips, and trading psychology, and explains how options are priced Options are a versatile trading instrument that typically cost less and can have lower risk than stocks. They also offer investors a unique edge and lucrative opportunities that are not available to stock only traders. Your Options Handbook helps investors fully understand the options market, allowing them to enter the sector with greater ease.

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 outlook Companion Website contains timely tools that allow you to continue to learn in a hands-on fashion long after closing the book Written 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.

A top options trader details a practical approach for pricing and trading options in any market condition The options market is always changing, and in order to keep up with it you need the greeks—delta, gamma, theta, vega, and rho—which are the best techniques for valuing options and executing trades regardless of market conditions. In the Second Edition of Trading Options Greeks, veteran options trader Dan Pasarelli puts these tools in perspective by offering fresh insights on option trading and valuation. An essential guide for both professional and aspiring traders, this book explains the greeks in a straightforward and accessible style. It skillfully shows how they can be used to facilitate trading strategies that seek to profit from volatility, time decay, or changes in interest rates. Along the way, it makes use of new charts and examples, and discusses how the proper application of the greeks can lead to more accurate pricing and trading as well as alert you to a range of other opportunities. Completely updated with new material Information on spreads, put-call parity and synthetic options, trading volatility, and advanced option trading is also included Explores how to exploit the dynamics of option pricing to improve your trading Having a comprehensive understanding of the greeks is essential to long-term options trading success. Trading Options Greeks, Second Edition shows you how to use the greeks to find better trades, effectively manage them, and ultimately, become more profitable.

Capture the fortune you're losing with every trade by learning to exploit options The Options Edge + Free Trial shows you how to capture the fortune you lose out on every day. Buying and selling traditional investments often entails instruments with optionality. Sometimes this optionality is explicit, while other times it is hidden. If you're not leveraging these embedded options to their fullest advantage, you're losing money. Most retail investors don't truly understand the nuances involved in successful options trading and instead rely on more comfortable instruments with fewer complex mechanics. If you're interested in optimizing your portfolio, it's time to step out of your comfort zone and learn what you've been missing. This book gives you the background you need to take full advantage of options in this booming market. The companion website features easy to use analytical tools that help investors find the best opportunities so you can start applying these methods right away. Whether or not you ultimately decide to start actively trading options, the concepts discussed will make you a better all-around trader with greater security in your financial affairs. Most investors buy and sell options every day without ever knowing it. This book relates stories of those who have leveraged options to make fortunes and those who have lost by not understanding the optionality of their financial endeavors. You must know the fundamentals of options, and then learn to recognize hidden options, in order to improve success in all of your investment activities. After taking these steps, you can go on to: Create hidden options at little or no cost Structure your finances to reduce risk and increase wealth Utilize a practical pricing model for smarter investing The listed options are currently the only growing exchange traded financial product in the developed markets, with a current average volume of 20 million contracts—equivalent to 2 billion shares—per day. Now is the perfect opportunity to fortify your finances, and The Options Edge + Free Trial gives you the understanding and practical tools you need to optimize your portfolio today.

A complete options trading tutorial-reference with brokerage selection, trading platform setup and backup, price chart analysis, popular chart studies and formations, trading rules, hands-on learning activities, trading options on futures, trading options on small accounts, an options terminology glossary, and a descriptive 78-strategy reference.

Important insights into effective option strategies In The Complete Guide to Option Strategies, top-performing commodity trading advisor Michael Mullaney explains how to successfully employ a variety of option strategies, from the most risky--selling naked puts and calls--to more conservative strategies using covered positions. The author covers everything from options on stocks, exchange-traded funds, stock indexes, and stock index futures to essential information on risk management, option "Greeks," and order placement. The book provides numerous tables and graphs to benefit beginning and experienced traders. Written by a CTA who has successfully employed various options strategies to generate market-beating returns, The Complete Guide to Option Strategies will be an important addition to any trader's library. Michael D. Mullaney (Jacksonville, FL) is a high-ranking commodity trading advisor who specializes in option selling strategies.

Strategies, tools, and solutions for minimizing risk and volatility in option trading An intermediate level trading book, The Option Trader Handbook, Second Edition provides serious traders with strategies for managing and adjusting their market positions. This Second Edition features new material on implied volatility; Delta and Theta, and how these measures can be used to make better trading decisions. The book presents the art of making trade adjustments in a logical sequence, starting with long and short stock positions; moving on to basic put and call positions; and finally discussing option spreads and combinations. Covers different types of underlying positions and discusses all the possible adjustments that can be made to that position Offers important insights into more complex option spreads and combinations A timely book for today's volatile markets Intended for both stock and option traders, this book will help you improve your overall trading skills and performance.

In this book, a hedge fund manager and an option trading coach show you how to earn steady, reliable income selling options by managing your option trades and running your option portfolio as a real business with consistent, steady returns. Packed with real-world examples, the authors show you how to manage your own “one man” hedge fund and make consistent profits from selling options by applying the basic framework and fundamental business model and principles of an “insurance company”. This framework helps you to apply your option trading strategy to a solid, predictable, business model with consistent returns. For someone who has some knowledge of trading options and wants to become a consistent income earner. The authors provide a complete “operations manual” for setting up your business. Gain pearls of wisdom from both a professional options trader and coach, and from a hedge fund manager focused on managing an options based portfolio.

This how-to resource provides leaders with a concrete framework for a strategic improvement plan, helping educators link the "principles" to "processes" of planning. Packed with key takeaways and additional resources, this book provides the concrete tools to design a strong strategy for improvement and enables educational leaders to think constructively about why we plan, what an effective strategic plan should contain, and how to create meaningful dialogue to support plan development, implementation, and monitoring for continuous improvement. The Strategy Playbook for Educational Leaders provides superintendents, central office staff, principals, and teacher leaders with the opportunity to reframe the process of their strategic planning and breathe new life into the activity.

Ideal for hybrid communication courses, The Communication Playbook is designed to equip students with the tools they need to develop communicative resilience in their personal and public lives, whether face-to-face or virtually. Supported by practical learning activities and exercises, along with discussions of timely topics such as events of extremism, a global pandemic, and the technological and multicultural nature of society, bestselling authors Teri Kwal Gamble and Michael W. Gamble help students navigate the physical and digital realms of communication, enabling them to become clear, confident communicators. The Second Edition includes updated examples, new annotated speeches on up-to-date topics, and greater coverage of how technology and culture influences communication. This title is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package. Contact your SAGE representative to request a demo. Digital Option / Courseware SAGE Vantage is an intuitive learning platform that integrates quality SAGE textbook content with assignable multimedia activities and auto-graded assessments to drive student engagement and ensure accountability. Unparalleled in its ease of use and built for dynamic teaching and learning, Vantage offers customizable LMS integration and best-in-class support. It’s a learning platform you, and your students, will actually love. Learn more. Assignable Video with Assessment Assignable video (available with SAGE Vantage) is tied to learning objectives and curated exclusively for this text to bring concepts to life. Watch a sample video now. LMS Cartridge: Import this title’s instructor resources into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Don’t use an LMS? You can still access all of the same online resources for this title via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site. Learn more.

Spread trading—trading complex, multi-leg structures--is the new frontier for the individual options trader. This book covers spread strategies, both of the limited-risk and unlimited-risk varieties, and how and when to use them. All eight of the multi-leg strategies are here: the covered-write, verticals, collars and reverse-collars, straddles and strangles, butterflies, calendar spreads, ratio spreads, and backspreads. Vocabulary, exercises and quizzes are included throughout the book to reinforce lessons. Saliba, Corona, and Johnson are the authors of Option Strategies for Directionless Markets.

Legendary trader Larry McMillan does it-again-offering his personal options strategies for consistently enhancing trading profits Larry McMillan's name is virtually synonymous with options. This "Trader's Hall of Fame" recipient first shared his personal options strategies and techniques in the original McMillan on Options. Now, in a revised and Second Edition, this indispensable guide to the world of options addresses a myriad of new techniques and methods needed for profiting consistently in today's fast-paced investment arena. This thoroughly new Second Edition features updates in almost every chapter as well as enhanced coverage of many new and increasingly popular products. It also offers McMillan's personal philosophy on options, and reveals many of his previously unpublished personal insights. Readers will soon discover why Yale Hirsch of the Stock Trader's Almanac says, "McMillan is an options guru par excellence."

Provide students a clear view of what success looks like for any process, task, or product. What does success look like for your students? How will they know if they have learned? This essential component of teaching and learning can be difficult to articulate but is vital to achievement for both teachers and students. The Success Criteria Playbook catapults teachers beyond learning intentions to define clearly what success looks like for every student—whether face-to-face or in a remote learning environment. Designed to be used collaboratively in grade-level, subject area teams—or even on your own—the step-by-step playbook expands teacher understanding of how success criteria can be utilized to maximize student learning and better engage learners in monitoring and evaluating their own progress. Each module is designed to support the creation and immediate implementation of high-quality, high impact success criteria and includes: • Templates that allow for guided and independent study for teachers. • Extensive STEM-focused examples from across the K-12 STEM curriculum to guide teacher learning and practice. • Examples of success criteria applied across learning domains and grades, including high school content, skills, practices, dispositions, and understandings.