Options and Options Trading

This book shows how to use options to increase your investment returns while reducing your risks. In the options market, it always comes down to you versus them. Thing is, they've been at it a lot longer than you, and have years of hands-on experience navigating the tricks and traps of profitable options trading. Before you take your place at the table, it's in your best interest to discover how options really work, and how they can work for you."Options and Options Trading" translates the foreign language of options into plain English. Based on Robert Ward's experience as a Merrill Lynch head trader as well as his popular New York University trading and options course, this step-by-step primer explains what options are, introduces basic valuation and trading concepts, and demystifies this versatile trading vehicle. Look to "Options and Options Trading" to learn: how to use options to increase profits or offset risks, and hazards to watch out for; the 8 most popular options strategies - how and why they work (and sometimes don't!); key options definitions, formulas, abbreviations, techniques, and more.Knowledge on Wall Street rarely comes cheap, and the options market can be a particularly expensive tutor. Let "Options and Options Trading" provide you with the insight you need to understand what is happening and why, and give you a head start on making options a low-risk, high-return part of your overall portfolio."There is a difficult, complex way to learn options (one that requires a Ph.D. in math) and an easier, more basic way for those of us who don't consider ourselves math geniuses. This book is about learning options the easy way..." - From Chapter 1. Options trading can look simple from afar. And frankly, the basics aren't all that difficult to grasp. But while this seeming simplicity has helped a few lucky traders garner fast fortunes, it is far more common to see inexperienced traders wearing bullsyes - with market veterans gladly lining up and taking aim. "Options and Options Trading" will open your eyes to the potentials and realities of real-world options trading.Written by Robert Ward, a former head trader who has devoted his career to both introducing options neophytes to the ways of the markets, this no-nonsense book provides today's best introduction to the complex options arena.Every important aspect of buying, selling, and profiting from options is introduced and explained, including: similarities and differences between using options for income and using them to hedge risks; methods for assessing the "fair value" of any option based on its expected returns; a generic framework for building a workable option pricing model Black-Scholes - how to understand and implement this ingenious and invaluable option formula; everything you need to know about price risk, and techniques traders use to manage that risk; how to understand and implement the Greeks - Delta, Gama, Vega (Kappa), Theta, and Rho; basic statistics knowledge you must

Robert W. Ward (Jersey City, NJ) is a prominent trainer and consultant to top financial firms such as Prudential and Salomon Smith Barney. Ward rose from pit trader to manager of traders at Merrill Lynch and has also taught a course on options at New York University.